One year in, still confusion on caregiver-leave law

Rhode Island broke ground in 2013 when lawmakers approved a Temporary Caregiver Insurance program with the most expansive employee-disability and family leave benefits in the country.
One year into the program, debate continues over whether providing four weeks of paid leave for employees to bond with a new child or take care of a sick family member is a good idea, even if fears of higher taxes or administrative costs have so far not been realized.
“We’re very proud of the smooth roll-out,” said Ray Pepin, Temporary Disability Insurance manager for the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, adding that the state receives an average of one call per week about the program, usually from small employers wanting to know if the law applies to them. (It does.)
Between January and Nov. 22, there were 4,533 TCI claims filed, according to the DLT spokeswoman Nicole Armstrong. That represents 10.9 percent of the total 41,398 TDI claims during the same period. Those TCI claims resulted in a total of $5,848,429 in benefit payments.
So far, most workers claiming TCI are doing so to bond with a child and more women are using the program than men.
In October, the most recent month available, 247 claims were to bond with a new child, compared with 108 to care for a sick family member. Of the 596 total claims, 403 were by women and 192 by men; 192 of the 596 claims were denied.
One thing acting in the law’s favor, an expected increase in the tax that pays these new benefits has not actually occurred.
Little noticed in the days following the 2014 election, the state announced that, for the second year in a row, the Temporary Disability Insurance tax, which pays for temporary-caregiver benefits, will stay at 1.2 percent of earnings.
When the TCI bill was being debated, the state estimated that the rate would need to be increased to 1.4 percent of earnings to pay workers on temporary-caregiver leave. “The addition of TCI did not impact the fund enough this year to require an increase in the rate,” Pepin said in an email.
The TDI “wage base” is slated to rise $1,500 in 2015, meaning the first $64,200 of each worker’s annual wages will be subject to the tax instead of the first $62,700 this year.
But Pepin said the wage-base hike, which went up $1,300 from 2013 to 2014, was not connected to temporary-caregiver benefits, rather a result of average earnings in the state rising, and as a result the maximum weekly benefit workers can collect from the system.
The lack of a tax hike does not mean, however, that TCI is now considered an unqualified success or is without controversy.
Comprised of both a government insurance system and an employer-leave mandate, TCI adds another layer of complexity to an already intricate web of state and federal labor laws.
“In general it is still too early to have a clear opinion on how it is working,” said Cynthia Butler, president of Butler & Associates Human Resources Consulting and director of government affairs for the Rhode Island Society of Human Resources Management, which testified against TCI in 2013. “I think there is a lot of confusion still. For large employers we now have five leave requirements, some federal and some state, and they are all different with different time frames.”
Before Rhode Island passed its TCI law, most of the rules regarding temporary leave were contained in the federal Family Medical Leave Act, which allows workers to take up to 12 weeks off for the birth of a child or to care for a family member.
Unlike Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance, FMLA does not provide compensation for those on leave; it also doesn’t include care for a grandparent and it must be taken in consecutive weeks.
Unlike FMLA, Temporary Caregiver Insurance applies to all employees, even those working for companies with less than 50 people on the payroll. According to Butler, TCI presents a different set of human resources challenges for small and large companies.
Small employers, which were previously not subject to mandatory leave laws, are often not aware that their employees are covered by the new state law.
And even though they don’t pay for the monetary benefit the worker receives while on leave, small businesses may not have the resources to operate smoothly without that worker.
For large companies, the challenge is more administrative.
If they take FMLA and TCI consecutively, workers can be off the job for up to 16 weeks, and keeping track of when one program ends and the other begins can involve substantial paperwork. It’s also complicated by the fact that employees seek permission from the company to take FMLA, but apply to the state for TCI.
Then companies have to factor in separate disability leave and claims brought under both the state Temporary Disability Insurance law and federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
“I think the essence of the law, to allow individuals to take care of a child or sick parent, is important, but some employers already have sick leave and an employee can collect TCI and sick pay at the same time,” Butler said. “They call this the Bermuda Triangle of labor law.”
Yet, so far at least, Rhode Island’s Temporary Caregiver system seems to have momentum.
In September, Rhode Island announced that it had been awarded a $161,417 U.S. Department of Labor grant to study the effectiveness of its TCI program with an eye toward improving it and helping other states create their own. The study will be a collaboration between DLT and the University of Rhode Island.
“Only 12 percent of Americans have access to paid leave through their employers.” said Sen. Gayle Goldin, D-Providence, sponsor of the TCI law, in a news release. “With our new caregiver-leave program, Rhode Island is a leader in the United States.” •

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