Season 3, Episode 8: Demystifying Connecticut Paid Leave with Erin Choquette, CEO of CT Paid Leave Authority

Erin Choquette: The Connecticut Paid Leave Authority is a quasi-public state agency. So, we are state employees. We're a state program, but we're not a traditional state agency. We are funded entirely through the payroll deductions that were created as part of this program. We don't get any state or federal money. Our job is to make sure that covered workers can receive income replacement benefits if they need time away from work for one of six covered reasons.

So, we administer that program. We collect those payroll contributions, we do outreach and education, and we try to make sure that employers and employees understand what their rights and responsibilities are.

Dan Schwartz: And as Chief Executive Officer, you get to oversee all of that, right?

Erin Choquette: I do. We have a team of 45 employees, so I lead the charge with the team. We also have two primary vendor partners - we have AFLAC, which works as our third-party administrator. So, they do a lot of the nitty gritty of reviewing the claim documents. I'm responsible for that relationship, as well as our relationship with United Way. They have a dedicated team who helps us respond to questions from employees and employers.

Dan Schwartz: Now, before we delve too much into things, I continue to hear from employers and others that there's still a bit of confusion of the Connecticut FMLA, the Connecticut Paid Leave and Paid Leave Authority, and now this Connecticut Sick Leave. We could spend a whole day, I'm sure, on all of it. But can you just briefly break down the differences and where the Paid Leave Authority fits into this scheme?

Erin Choquette: Certainly. So, Connecticut FMLA is the state law that's been around since the 90’s, although it was updated in 2022. That's the state law that provides job protected leave for eligible employees. It is similar to the federal FMLA, but it is more expansive in terms of who it covers. So, the big thing to remember about FMLA is job protection. The employer has to hold the job for the employee when they're out of work for a period of time. The employer does not have to pay the employee when they're out of work. They may allow the employee to use their accruals, they may offer a short term disability policy, but that's all voluntary. Even employers that are generous often don't cover the entire amount of leave. So, employees do have a period of time where they're unpaid, and that's problematic. Most of us can't go for too long without our wages coming in. We still have the mortgage to pay and rent and food and electricity. And so that's where the Connecticut Paid Leave Program comes in. We provide income replacement benefits to those workers who are out of work on those same reasons when they're getting either no money from their employer or less than their regular wages from their employer. We do not provide any job protection. So, you can't be retaliated against or discriminated against because you're taking paid leave benefits, but it's not an extra source of time off, it's just the money.

The Connecticut Sick Leave law is a separate law, it's in a separate section of the statutes, and that law says covered employers should pay their workers some paid time off. They should allow those workers to accrue time. Right now, it's, I think it's one hour for every 30 hours worked. So that those workers will have some money coming from the employer to use if they need time off for a doctor's appointment or a child wakes up with an earache and can't go to school. There's half a dozen reasons that you could use those paid sick time. So that is money that the employer is responsible to pay to their worker that's capped at 40 hours in a year. Many employers already do this, but the law mandates it for different employers of different sizes, so it's going to roll out over the next few years. And has some nuances about advanced notice and documentation that are slightly different than traditional employer policies that employment lawyers would have recommended. But usually people use those paid sick leave accrued hours for often minor illnesses, right? Again, like the well child visit or you wake up with a terrible headache and you just can't lift your head off the bed. Paid Sick Leave is that short term thing. Paid leave is really, I've got a serious health condition, or my family member has a serious health condition. I'm going to be out of work for several weeks, or maybe I only have to be out of work on an intermittent basis, so I have to take my mom to her dialysis appointments. So maybe I'm only missing a couple days a month, but that's going to go on for the next six months. So, we're really that safeguard for those serious illnesses, serious injuries, or the nice things like a baby in the family or a newly adopted child, but that longer term situation.

Dan Schwartz: Yeah, so let's focus just on the Sort of Paid Leave what you're responsible for. And for those who have an interest, I covered earlier this season. We really delved into the Paid Sick Leave law a little bit more so you can check that out on your feed. So, getting back to the paid leave, as you say, income replacement. What are some of the basics that employers should know about this?

Erin Choquette: The employer is responsible for paying the employees, so they're responsible for any payroll deduction. So, they have to make sure that they are taking a half a percent deduction from their workers wages up to the Social Security limit and remitting those funds to the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority.

If you have a payroll provider, a third-party administrator handling your pay or an accountant who handles your pay. The employer has to make sure that the payroll provider is taking that half a percent deduction and sending it to the authority on a quarterly basis. That's the number one job of employers, is just making sure that employee money comes to us because that's what funds the benefits as well as our program.

Dan Schwartz: So let me stop you there just for a second. There's someone who's listening who's going, oh, My goodness, I don't think I've done that so far. Is there something they can do to get into compliance with the law?

Erin Choquette: Yes. Hopefully it's a brand-new employer because this contribution requirement has been on the books since January of 2021.

And If you have been an employer in Connecticut for a while, particularly if you are reporting to Department of Labor, as most employers have to do for unemployment, we've probably reached out to you. We have a pretty robust compliance effort going. But if you are like, gosh, I don't think I've done this. The bad news is that if the employer does not take the payroll deduction, from the employee's wages, the employer is now on the hook for that money. So you can't go back to your employees and say, gosh, I'm so sorry. We're now going to take all this money out of your wages. That's not going to work. In the very beginning, we did have a safe harbor that we worked out with Department of Labor, where employers could do some catch up deductions, but we terminated that safe harbor after 15 months.

So right now, if you're not in compliance, the best thing you can do is go to our website at ctpaidleave.org. We have a contact us page. Submit an inquiry. saying that you need help with your contributions, and we'll work with you to get into compliance. As I said, this is a pretty longstanding obligation now so employers really do need to make sure that they are up to par. And if they haven't been, they're probably getting notices from us. In addition to the obligation to pay that contribution that they should have taken from the employee's wages, we do have the authority to impose a very slight penalty.

It's 50 or 10% of the money owed and we will work with employers. Usually right now, after all of our compliance efforts, the issue is that they haven't told us that they closed, right? Or that they no longer have a Connecticut employer. So, we're very accommodating about situations like that where it's just catching up on your paperwork.

Dan Schwartz: So, beyond this sort of making sure you're getting these payroll contributions from the employees and then paying it to the state, what else should employers be aware of?

Erin Choquette: There is an obligation that is part Connecticut FMLA and part Connecticut Paid Leave, which is a notice obligation. Employers are supposed to provide their employees with a notice. The DOL has a template form that you can use on their website, that you provide upon hire and then on an annual basis that makes sure your employees know that they have rights under Connecticut FMLA and that they have rights under Connecticut Paid Leave. So that's an important one to be aware of. The third obligation is if you have an employee who files a claim with the Paid Leave Authority for benefits.

That employee is supposed to notify you, the employer, that they've done so. As the employer, there is a form that we ask you to complete. We call it the Employment Verification Form. It provides us with some information we can't get anywhere else. Specifically, is the employee receiving workers compensation benefits in connection with this absence? There's no centralized repository of that information. So we get it from the employer. Is the employee receiving any employer provided benefits in connection with this absence? Are they using sick leave accruals? Do you have a short-term disability policy? Our statute says we have to account for that in our benefit payment so we need to know that from the employer.

And then finally, we validate the employee's work schedule. On those occasions when your worker says, Hey, I'm applying for Connecticut Paid Leave benefits because, I'm planning on knee surgery or I'm taking dad to physical therapy. The employer needs to complete this form.

So, I can't really let go of my employment law history. So, I will say that also puts the employer on notice. But you have an FMLA situation here, and they should be doing all of their FMLA things like running eligibility and providing the notice of rights and responsibilities. So that's all the FMLA side. We're often that open door to, oh, so this is what's going on. We should do that as well.

Dan Schwartz: Got it. So briefly what are the and I know we've been focused on a lot on the employer, but what are some of the reasons that an employee can get paid leave benefits? You mentioned birth. Are there some other major categories that people can get these benefits for?

Erin Choquette: The number one reason that people apply to us for benefits is for their own serious health condition. So again, that could be they got a diagnosis of cancer and so they have surgery or chemo or the like. It could be that they have a chronic condition - they have, chronic migraines or IBS. And so they are receiving ongoing care and treatment from a healthcare provider, but they have flare ups. And when they have a flare up, they can't work, so they need to be out for a couple hours, a couple days. So that serious health condition, your own serious health condition, accounts for almost half of our claims. So, the second most common reason is the pregnancy childbirth bonding. So, pregnancy technically is a serious health condition under FMLA. We count it as a separate category because everyone thinks of it as a separate category. So, pregnancy and childbirth, that recovery time from the childbirth, a recovery from a miscarriage, all of that fits into the pregnancy childbirth bucket. So that's a common reason for leave. The third most common is bonding.

So, either parents can take leave to bond with that newborn baby, a newly adopted child, or a newly placed foster child. And then number four is caring for a family member who has a serious health condition. There are a couple of other reasons that people can take leave that are important, although less used.

There's the two military family leaves. One is military caregiver, if you have a family member injured in the line of duty on active duty, it’s categorized separately because FMLA treats it as a separate entitlement and gives them more time. Then there's qualifying exigency leave. If you have a parent, spouse, or child who has been called to active service or is on active duty, there are nine qualifying circumstances that are exigent circumstances, where your normal life has been disrupted by this active duty by your family member and so you need time off. This is almost always intermittent leave. And then finally there's safe leave, which was expanded on October 1st of this past year to include not just family violence leave, but also leave if a person experienced sexual assault so they can take time off and receive benefits from us to go to court, to relocate, or receive services from a victim service organization.

Dan Schwartz: And in terms of income replacement, is this like 100% income replacement? Are there caps on it?

Erin Choquette: There are caps. So, it's a sliding scale, but there's only three spots on the scale. If you earn less than or equal to 40x the Connecticut minimum wage, you will receive 95% of your average earnings. We look at the first four of the five most recently completed calendar quarters. Then we add together all of your earnings from all your covered Connecticut employers. So, if you have part time jobs, we add them all together. Divide that by 26, that's your average. Right now, if that equals 654 per week or less, you'll get 95% of whatever that number is. If you earn more than that, there's a two-part calculation, you get 95% up to that 650 number plus 60%, but in all situations, the benefit is capped at 60x the Connecticut minimum wage. So right now, our maximum weekly benefit is $981.

Dan Schwartz: Got it. So, what steps? We talked about sort of the four things employers can do. Is there anything else that employers should be aware of? Maybe even a website that they can go to?

Erin Choquette: Two important things that employers should be aware of. First is that our website, which is ctpaidleave.org, has all sorts of information. We've got pages specifically for employers about how to register, how to remit the contributions, how to complete the employment verification form, but also more general information, particularly if they want to know how to help their employees.

So ctpaidleave.org, is a really great resource. We also have videos. We have our own podcast, so we've got a lot of resources for folks. The other thing that I should mention that I've forgotten to mention thus far is Connecticut allows an alternate compliance method. Employers can apply to the authority to offer a private plan where they promise that they are going to provide equal or better benefits to their employees. It can be an insurance policy or a self-insured policy. They have to get the employees to vote in favor of it. So at least 51% of your employees have to say, yes, we want this private plan. Then the employer can apply to us for permission, giving us a copy of their proposed plan. And if they do that, they don't remit contributions to us they can take that money and use it toward their plan. So, we have about 800 employers who've done that.

Dan Schwartz: Got it. And information on that is also available up on the website?

Erin Choquette: Also on the website, yep.

Dan Schwartz: Before we wrap up, anything else you want employers or anyone who's listening to know?

Erin Choquette: I think it's really important to focus on that employer-employee relationship. The number one issue we hear employers say is recruiting and retaining qualified workers. Connecticut FMLA and Connecticut Paid Leave are actually wonderful tools for an employer to recruit those workers. We're only one of 14 states right now that have a paid leave program. So, people are coming to Connecticut for this program and it's a great way to retain those workers. People are going to get sick. They're going to want to take care of their families. They're going to have babies. For the employer, it's not about stopping that from happening. It's about how do you make sure that you have a relationship with your worker where they want to come back to work, and they want to stay with you.

So, I think looking at paid leave and Connecticut FMLA as an opportunity to build that relationship is a mindset that can help workers and employers achieve the goals that they want to achieve.

Dan Schwartz: Yeah, and I think that's a probably a good point to finish up on which is that employers in Connecticut already have their FMLA Requirements, they're already providing the protected leave.

So, the paid leave which isn't paid by the employer - it's paid by the employees really allows those employees to get some income replacement and then return hopefully at the end of their leave without too much stress on their families because they've gotten some of that income replacement. And it acts, I think, in some ways, like a worker's compensation program or even in some respects a little different, like the unemployment insurance, which is bridging gaps there. So, it's been great to see it in action. And Erin, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast today.

Erin Choquette: Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the program and to make sure employers know we're here to help them with compliance.

Dan Schwartz: Terrific. I again thank Erin and the Paid Leave Authority for their time today. Again, you can find information on their website, and as always, you can also find additional information that we have up on our various employment law blogs and alerts that you can find at the Shipment & Goodwin website. With that, we are wrapping up another episode of the From Lawyer to Employer podcast.

Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And we hope you join us again in the future for another episode. Thanks again.

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