Virginia enacts paid family and medical leave
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed landmark legislation on May 11 that creates a paid family and medical leave program.
Some 3 million workers will now be able to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave to welcome a new baby, recover from a serious illness, care for a loved one, or meet the unique needs of military families.
Virginia is now the first state in the South to provide paid family and medical leave, Spanberger said at the bill signing ceremony.
“We are empowering millions of Virginia parents and workers with the security, dignity, and peace of mind they deserve,” she said. “No one should have to choose between spending time with their newborn and paying their bills. No one should have to drain their savings or fall behind on rent because a loved one gets sick. And no one should be forced to return to work while facing a serious illness.”
Spanberger said the new law will also benefit small and mid-sized businesses by allowing them to offer employees competitive benefits they couldn’t previously afford.
Under the new law, Virginia workers – including part-time workers and small business employees – who qualify for paid medical or family leave will receive approximately 80 percent of their average weekly wage, capped at 100 percent of the state’s average weekly wage.
Currently, the average Virginia worker who takes four weeks of unpaid leave loses more than $3,600 in income.
Related story: Spanberger signs more bills, vetoes others
Paid family and medical leave has been a long time coming. Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Fairfax) has been working on getting this legislation passed for eight years.
The program will be administered through the Virginia Employment Commission.
Self-employed Virginians will have the option to enroll in the program, and Virginia businesses will be able to continue offering private paid family and medical leave plans that meet minimum requirements under the new law.
The program will be funded through a small payroll contribution by covered employers and employees.
Payroll contributions will begin on April 1, 2028. Benefits will be available on Dec. 1, 2028.
Wow!!! Dems have once again found free money to give away! Wow!!!
Is ANYONE asking where it comes from? ANYONE? Buehler?
Yeah, Trump said we can’t afford silly sh*t like health care and parental leave! We have wars to fight and pools to paint!
It comes from the same place that $1.5T defense budget comes from. Or the $1B for a new whitehouse ballroom. Or the $50B for the Iran War. Or the $4B we give to Isreal every year. A country that has universal health care.
How do you rationalize giving $4B every year to a country that has universal healthcare while deploring an estimated $100M every year (the cost of this paid family leave program) to your neighbors, friends, and family in this country in which healthcare is bankrupting everyone?
The money is always easy to find except when it actually benefits Americans.
Don’t worry though, the president said “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.” This guy says it out loud, and you’d still offer your first born to go to Epstein Island with him.
Perhaps you missed this sentence near the end of the article: “The program will be funded through a small payroll contribution by covered employers and employees.” So it’s not free money. This is a highly laudable program.
“Free” money was sarcasm. Of course it’s not free, no such thing as a free lunch.
Yes, it’s a payroll “contribution”. That of course means tax. Part from the employee and part from the employer.
And, that’s my point. From where does the employer take their “contribution”? From profits, customers, kids’ piggy bank, who knows? But it’s gotta come from somewhere and someone.
And then it’s given to someone who didn’t earn it. So we should call it what it really is–wealth transfer or socialism or a handout.
It’s insurance, not a handout. You pay premiums, you collect when something happens. That’s how insurance works.
The employer contribution just comes out of your total compensation anyway, so congrats, you’re arguing against your own raise.
“Wealth transfer” describes all insurance. Healthy people subsidize sick ones. Always have. If that’s socialism, cancel your health insurance.
The real beef (mandatory participation, bad actuarial design, Virginia’s specific numbers) is worth having. But you can’t have that debate when the policy gets slapped with “socialism” and “handout” before anyone reads page one. That’s the play: make it toxic enough that legitimate criticism gets drowned out by the culture war framing, and suddenly nobody’s actually talking about whether the math works. Republicans do it to every Democratic policy. It’s effective. It’s also why nothing ever gets fixed. Worth noting that Republicans currently own the White House, the Senate, and the House, and the people screaming loudest about economic pain are still screaming just as loud. Maybe the handout wasn’t the problem.
Okay I’ll grant you the toxicity comment, beg your pardon, and mostly agree. But, no one’s being persuaded here anyway. Where’s the fun in that?
But the employer’s share is not like a raise. If in fact the employee was ever going to get the money to save or spend as they saw fit, sayonara.
As you say, the program is mandatory. It’s a tax and may well preempt an actual raise for even the highest performing employees.
And, of course the same with the employee’s tax, they’re no longer the decision-maker with their own money. The government is.
Oh yeah, and we’ll all be paying for the privilege of the government administering this program.
Cheers.
Oh spare me the pity party.
It can be true that Trump (and every POTUS before him) wastes money AND this socialist leave program incentivizes even more handouts.
I for one can argue against both, but can you?
So c’mon people, all together now: Row your own boat. Lift your own weight. Earn your own money. Spend your own money.
You say you can argue against both but in your initial comment, but you failed to do so with your partisan take. Clearly it’s how you felt, backtracking now only makes you look sillier.
Now who’s looking silly and partisan?
I was commenting on the article and simply mentioned sarcastically the Dems like spending other people’s money.
You on the other hand can only muster, Oh yeah? Well, I hate Trump, I hate Trump.
I don’t think both are bad. I think when the people get together and determine that our common issues can be addressed by a common solution it’s a good thing.
But I’ll suppose for a second that I do agree that both are bad. Do you contend that 3 to 6 orders-of-magnitude greater spending of dubious need is worthy of less concern than this piddly $100M program to help your neighbors and friends with being a new parent?
How about the $1-2B expected cost of renaming of the DoD to the DoW? I’m sure you were up in arms about the $500K we spent to rename Jeb Stuart to Justice. 4000 times as much for the DoW and I’m sure it’s crickets from you.
How about the $10B to the POTUS personally to settle some BS lawsuit?
“All waste is bad” you proclaim while on your way to vote for folks who are laughing all the way to the bank after picking your pockets repeatedly and continuously.
“Earn your own money. Spend your own money.” LOL. As if anyone in Fairfax County doesn’t own their entire livelihood to federal tax dollars.
If you’re talking to me, YES, I’m up in arms about all government wasteful spending. Budgets should be zero-based, all programs must be rejustified each year. Especially but not exclusively handouts.
Why should I have to support what are essentially dependents by donating (confiscated) my wages to people that I don’t know and who do they care about me?
I’m leaving Virginia in July because I have no desire to bow down to Bolsheviks.