States have been leading the charge on paid leave, ensuring millions of workers can take time off to recover from sickness, care for a loved one who is ill, or welcome a new child. So far, thirteen states and Washington, D.C. have paid family and medical leave programs covering nearly 50 million workers and their families.
Now, in its 2025 legislative session, Pennsylvania could become the first swing state to win paid family and medical leave by passing a strong, popular, bipartisan bill that would cover nearly all of the state’s more than 6 million workers. Soon-to-be-released polling shows overwhelming support across party lines, with 81 percent of Pennsylvania voters—including 67 percent of Pennsylvania Republicans—supporting the policy. What’s more, polling from 2024 shows that 78 percent of Pennsylvania’s small business owners were supportive when asked about a national paid leave program.
The bill hand-delivers a huge opportunity to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro—he could become the first swing-state governor to enact a statewide paid leave program.
Yet so far, Governor Shapiro has been silent on a bipartisan effort—the Family Care Act—in the legislature to pass statewide paid leave. This is a curious decision, considering the strong support for a paid leave policy among Pennsylvania voters. Not only do Pennsylvanians want paid leave for themselves, the new polling shows nearly seven in ten Pennsylvania voters, including 50 percent of Republicans, would be more likely to support a presidential candidate who champions paid family leave policies. Governor Shapiro’s silence on paid leave places him in stark contrast to his fellow rising-star governors with presidential ambitions. From Minnesota, to California, to Michigan, to Illinois, his fellow 2028 aspirants have engaged in a heated race to the top, enthusiastically championing paid leave as part of strong agendas for working families.
In fact, rather than support a robust paid leave policy, Governor Shapiro has instead endorsed the idea of having Pennsylvania become a testing ground for a flimsy “portable benefits” scheme that threatens to undermine real, legitimate paid leave. In 2024, gig company DoorDash launched a pilot program to create small savings accounts for its delivery drivers; it is worth noting, however, that DoorDash drivers, as self-employed workers, would be able to opt in to Pennsylvania lawmakers’ bipartisan program, if passed.
Programs like the DoorDash pilot are an inadequate substitute for paid leave and other critical benefits these workers need, since there is little chance that the meager individual saving accounts the pilot sets up would be sufficient to help workers care for their loved ones or weather an emergency. The company and its supporters in Congress plan to use the Pennsylvania pilot to spread this substitute model nationwide.
Working families in Pennsylvania deserve better. Governor Shapiro should seize this opportunity not only to score a first-of-its-kind bipartisan victory in a swing state but also more importantly to deliver for Pennsylvania workers a strong paid leave program that will allow them—and the state’s economy—to thrive.
States have led the way on paid leave
The United States remains an outlier as the only industrialized country with no national law that provides paid leave to all workers. As Congress has failed to take action, states have increasingly taken charge. Nearly 50 million people in the United States now have access to paid family and medical leave due to laws in thirteen states and Washington, D.C.. Paid medical leave began decades ago in a handful of states. Then, in 2004, California became the first state to enact paid family leave along with its existing paid medical leave, ensuring that workers could take paid time off to care for a new child or ill loved one.
In the two decades since, the momentum for paid family and medical leave has grown. In addition to the thirteen states and Washington, D.C. that have passed paid family and medical leave, more than three dozen states have implemented some form of paid family leave for their public-sector employees. At the same time, states with existing laws have strengthened their programs by increasing wage replacement, improving coverage for family members, and expanding the number of weeks of leave. In 2023, Minnesota and Maine became the latest to pass paid family and medical leave laws.
The states with paid family and medical leave are shaping the national push for a comprehensive national program. In 2013, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Rosa DeLauro introduced the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, modeled on lessons learned at the state level. The FAMILY Act has since been reintroduced multiple times and incorporates many of the innovative ideas from states’ paid leave programs.
President Biden included a comprehensive national paid family and medical leave proposal in his Presidential Budgets. In 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a paid family and medical leave program as part of the Build Back Better package, but the measure ultimately failed in the U.S. Senate. Now, with Republicans in control of the White House and Congress focused on increasing tariffs, slashing Medicaid, and cutting taxes for the country’s richest people, working families seem unlikely to see federal action on paid leave anytime soon. And the actions of the Trump administration are likely to drive families’ costs for care even higher.
Fortunately, legislators in several additional states are leading efforts to provide workers with paid family and medical leave. That includes New Mexico, where efforts stalled in the state senate this March. In Nevada, legislators had a first hearing on a bill in April to expand leave in the private sector. But by far the most likely next state that could see decisive action is Pennsylvania.
Map 1
Governors are in a “race to the top” on paid leave
Shapiro’s fellow governors—many of whom are his fellow 2028 presidential hopefuls—seem to be competing to be the nation’s most pro-working-family governor, including by championing paid leave.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed into law a new statewide paid family and medical leave program in June 2023 as part of a historic pro-worker package that also gave workers access to paid sick days. Similar to the proposal currently being considered in Pennsylvania, Minnesota’s law will provide up to twenty weeks per year in combined family and medical leave to roughly 3 million workers, with progressive benefits that replace 90 percent of wages for the lowest-paid workers. The program is considered one of the strongest in the nation, leading Minnesota to rank among the top five states for care policy in the 2024 Care Report Card, and making strong strides toward Governor Walz’s pledge to make Minnesota “the best state in the country to raise a family.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom strengthened California’s first-in-the-nation paid family and medical leave program in 2022, by boosting the share of a worker’s salary that is covered when they must take time off of work. Starting in 2025, workers earning less than $57,000 per year will receive 90 percent of their wages, up from 70 percent, making it more financially feasible for lower-paid workers to care for a new child or ill family member. Above that earnings threshold, eligible workers will receive 70 percent wage replacement, up from 60 percent. Governor Newsom also strengthened California’s paid sick and safe leave protections, increasing the minimum number of days available to workers from three to five starting in 2024. California’s robust paid leave and other family-friendly policies lead it to rank third in the 2024 Care Report Card.
Other rising-star governors have taken action as well despite facing challenging political landscapes. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer called for paid family and medical leave in 2023 and has also signed the state’s new paid sick and safe leave law in July 2024, following a prolonged court battle, alongside an increase in the state’s minimum wage to reach $15 by 2027. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed the Paid Leave for All Act in March 2023, guaranteeing workers—including domestic workers—forty hours of paid time per year that may be taken for any reason. And Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democratic governor in a red state, has proposed six weeks paid leave for state employees who have a new child or serious illness—which, if approved, will go into effect as early as summer 2025. Even a Republican governor in a deep red state—Alabama Governor Kay Ivey—signed into law a paid parental leave bill in April 2025, giving Alabama’s state employees paid time off after the birth of a child. While these actions fall short of the comprehensive paid family, medical, sick, and safe leave working families need, they represent strong steps forward.
Shapiro has an unparalleled opportunity to deliver for Pennsylvania workers and their families
Nearly four million Pennsylvania workers—66 percent—currently lack paid family and medical leave from their employer. That means each year, hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians need to take time off to care for themselves or a loved one, but cannot do so. And those who do, yet must take unpaid or partially paid leave, lose out on $2 billion in wages every year, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy.
The bipartisan Family Care Act currently being considered in the legislature would help Pennsylvania workers and their families by providing them with between twelve and twenty weeks of paid leave to bond with a new child, care for a family member, address their own serious health condition, attend to the needs of a military family member, or seek assistance for domestic or sexual violence. Workers would receive 90 percent of their weekly earnings up to half the state’s average weekly wage, and 50 percent of their earnings for greater amounts, capped at the state average weekly wage (about $1,350 per week). Benefits would be funded through a modest payroll deduction. The program would cover private-sector employees as well as state and local government employees—and self-employed workers could opt-in to participate as well.
Legislation like the Family Care Act could prevent thousands of Pennsylvania families from having to choose between keeping their jobs and providing critical care. Families like that of Josie Badger, who was born with a physical disability called congenital myasthenic syndrome that landed her in the hospital for months as a child. As Josie grew, she watched her parents—two teachers—struggle to keep their jobs and make ends meet without paid family and medical leave. Their fellow teachers donated paid time off so her mother could spend time in the hospital. Josie, now co-chair of Pennsylvania’s Family Care Coalition, is advocating to ensure no other Pennsylvania family is left without the leave to care for a disabled or ill child.
Last year, with all eyes on Pennsylvania, a bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers came close to passing a similar bill—but Governor Shapiro did not include it in his legislative priorities. The U.S. Department of Labor estimated that over 260,000 eligible Pennsylvania workers would have an approved application for leave in a year after experiencing a covered family or medical need.
This year’s bill gives Governor Shapiro an unparalleled opportunity to champion statewide paid leave and deliver for the workers of Pennsylvania.
This year’s bill gives Governor Shapiro an unparalleled opportunity to champion statewide paid leave and deliver for the workers of Pennsylvania. Yet he has so far failed to capitalize on this bipartisan opportunity, despite promises to promote bipartisan priorities in Pennsylvania. While Shapiro’s administration did modestly increase the amount of parental leave that state employees can take from six weeks to eight weeks in 2024, he has not yet seized the chance to support four million additional Pennsylvania workers and their families.
Pennsylvania instead has become a testing ground for efforts to undermine robust paid leave
Unfortunately, Governor Shapiro has instead enabled Pennsylvania to become a testing ground for a policy that threatens workers’ access to paid leave and other critical benefits. In 2024, gig company DoorDash—with Shapiro’s support—launched what it calls a “portable benefits savings pilot” for delivery drivers.
As recent research by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) describes, the DoorDash program creates a meager “savings account” in place of the robust benefits workers need—such as paid leave, health insurance, and retirement accounts. Under the program, DoorDash contributes 4 percent of delivery workers’ pre-tip earnings. NELP finds workers participating in the DoorDash program earn an average of less than $9 per hour before tips (or $19 per hour after tips) and work an average of twenty hours per week. The amounts are small: DoorDash contributed an average of just about $31 per month to participating Pennsylvania workers’ accounts in 2024. DoorDash workers can use up to the amount in their savings account if they need to take leave, purchase health insurance, or for other purposes. By contrast, under Pennsylvania’s Family Care Act paid leave proposal, an eligible low-paid worker who takes time to care for a loved one would receive 90 percent of their wages, including tips, for up to twelve to twenty weeks. So that same DoorDash worker, if they instead participated in the Family Care Act program, would receive up to $1,470 a month in paid leave benefits. It would take the average worker in DoorDash’s pilot nearly four years to accrue that amount in their savings account. (See Table 1.)
DoorDash’s pilot stands in contrast to true portable benefits, as would be created by Pennsylvania’s paid family and medical leave bill, which accrue as individuals work and follow individuals from job to job. In addition to robust state paid family and medical leave programs, other examples of true portable benefits programs include unemployment insurance and Social Security. True portable benefits programs pool risk to provide benefits that are adequate for individuals to balance work and family responsibilities and weather emergencies. By contrast, DoorDash’s pilot puts the risk on the individual to self-insure through savings.
| Table 1. Comparison of Pennsylvania’s proposed paid leave program to DoorDash’s portable benefits pilot |
| Program |
Family Care Act |
DoorDash Pilot |
| Program type |
Social insurance with pooled risk across workforce and employers |
Self-insurance using individual savings at one employer |
| Coverage |
Private-sector, state, and local employees; self-employed workers may opt in |
Eligible DoorDash workers |
| Eligibility |
Worker must have earned at least $2,718 and worked at least eighteen weeks during the preceding twelve-month period |
Worker must have earned at least $1,000 before tips from DoorDash and completed at least 100 deliveries in Pennsylvania between April 1 and June 30, 2024, and chose to participate |
| Benefits |
90 percent of weekly earnings up to half the state average weekly wage, and 50 percent of earnings for greater amounts; capped at the state average weekly wage (about $1,350 per week, equal to about $5,860 per month) |
Worker can access any funds accrued in their savings account; average savings is $31 per month |
| Expected monthly benefit for eligible worker averaging 20 hours/week and $9/hour before tips ($19/hour after tips) |
$1,470 per month |
Worker can access any funds accrued in savings account; average savings is $31 per month |
| Financing |
Payroll tax of less than 0.6 percent contributed by worker |
4 percent of worker’s pre-tax earnings, contributed by DoorDash |
| Sources: Pennsylvania House Bill 200, https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/text/PDF/2025/0/HB0200/PN0561; DoorDash, “Pennsylvania Portable Benefits Savings Pilot,” https://help.doordash.com/dashers/s/article/Pennsylvania-Portable-Benefits-Savings-Pilot?language=en_US; Laura Padin, “Why Workers Need Real Portable Benefits,” National Employment Law Project, https://www.nelp.org/insights-research/why-workers-need-real-portable-benefits/. |
The United States has long seen efforts to undermine robust portable benefit systems, often motivated by businesses’ opposition to contributing to these systems. In recent years, gig companies have led efforts to exclude their workers from existing portable benefits systems by classifying them as independent contractors instead of employees, enabling these companies to avoid payroll taxes while denying workers protections such as paid leave and unemployment insurance, as well as minimum wage and overtime.
To reduce opposition from workers and policymakers, companies have advanced inadequate substitutes, such as DoorDash’s savings accounts. And a federal bill introduced in Congress, the Modern Worker Security Act (H.R. 1320), would guarantee companies like DoorDash can continue to classify their workers as independent contractors rather than employees while offering fake portable benefits.
Conclusion
With federal action that will truly support workers unlikely to come soon, progress on paid leave is in the hands of the states. Governor Shapiro can show he stands with Pennsylvania’s 6 million workers and their families by supporting Pennsylvania’s paid family and medical leave bill—rather than inadequate substitutes—and set an example for the entire nation.
Tags: pennsylvania, paid family leave, josh shapiro
Will Pennsylvania Become the First Swing State to Pass Paid Leave?
States have been leading the charge on paid leave, ensuring millions of workers can take time off to recover from sickness, care for a loved one who is ill, or welcome a new child. So far, thirteen states and Washington, D.C. have paid family and medical leave programs covering nearly 50 million workers and their families.
Now, in its 2025 legislative session, Pennsylvania could become the first swing state to win paid family and medical leave by passing a strong, popular, bipartisan bill that would cover nearly all of the state’s more than 6 million workers. Soon-to-be-released polling shows overwhelming support across party lines, with 81 percent of Pennsylvania voters—including 67 percent of Pennsylvania Republicans—supporting the policy. What’s more, polling from 2024 shows that 78 percent of Pennsylvania’s small business owners were supportive when asked about a national paid leave program.
The bill hand-delivers a huge opportunity to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro—he could become the first swing-state governor to enact a statewide paid leave program.
Yet so far, Governor Shapiro has been silent on a bipartisan effort—the Family Care Act—in the legislature to pass statewide paid leave. This is a curious decision, considering the strong support for a paid leave policy among Pennsylvania voters. Not only do Pennsylvanians want paid leave for themselves, the new polling shows nearly seven in ten Pennsylvania voters, including 50 percent of Republicans, would be more likely to support a presidential candidate who champions paid family leave policies. Governor Shapiro’s silence on paid leave places him in stark contrast to his fellow rising-star governors with presidential ambitions. From Minnesota, to California, to Michigan, to Illinois, his fellow 2028 aspirants have engaged in a heated race to the top, enthusiastically championing paid leave as part of strong agendas for working families.
In fact, rather than support a robust paid leave policy, Governor Shapiro has instead endorsed the idea of having Pennsylvania become a testing ground for a flimsy “portable benefits” scheme that threatens to undermine real, legitimate paid leave. In 2024, gig company DoorDash launched a pilot program to create small savings accounts for its delivery drivers; it is worth noting, however, that DoorDash drivers, as self-employed workers, would be able to opt in to Pennsylvania lawmakers’ bipartisan program, if passed.
Programs like the DoorDash pilot are an inadequate substitute for paid leave and other critical benefits these workers need, since there is little chance that the meager individual saving accounts the pilot sets up would be sufficient to help workers care for their loved ones or weather an emergency. The company and its supporters in Congress plan to use the Pennsylvania pilot to spread this substitute model nationwide.
Working families in Pennsylvania deserve better. Governor Shapiro should seize this opportunity not only to score a first-of-its-kind bipartisan victory in a swing state but also more importantly to deliver for Pennsylvania workers a strong paid leave program that will allow them—and the state’s economy—to thrive.
States have led the way on paid leave
The United States remains an outlier as the only industrialized country with no national law that provides paid leave to all workers. As Congress has failed to take action, states have increasingly taken charge. Nearly 50 million people in the United States now have access to paid family and medical leave due to laws in thirteen states and Washington, D.C.. Paid medical leave began decades ago in a handful of states. Then, in 2004, California became the first state to enact paid family leave along with its existing paid medical leave, ensuring that workers could take paid time off to care for a new child or ill loved one.
In the two decades since, the momentum for paid family and medical leave has grown. In addition to the thirteen states and Washington, D.C. that have passed paid family and medical leave, more than three dozen states have implemented some form of paid family leave for their public-sector employees. At the same time, states with existing laws have strengthened their programs by increasing wage replacement, improving coverage for family members, and expanding the number of weeks of leave. In 2023, Minnesota and Maine became the latest to pass paid family and medical leave laws.
The states with paid family and medical leave are shaping the national push for a comprehensive national program. In 2013, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Rosa DeLauro introduced the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, modeled on lessons learned at the state level. The FAMILY Act has since been reintroduced multiple times and incorporates many of the innovative ideas from states’ paid leave programs.
President Biden included a comprehensive national paid family and medical leave proposal in his Presidential Budgets. In 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a paid family and medical leave program as part of the Build Back Better package, but the measure ultimately failed in the U.S. Senate. Now, with Republicans in control of the White House and Congress focused on increasing tariffs, slashing Medicaid, and cutting taxes for the country’s richest people, working families seem unlikely to see federal action on paid leave anytime soon. And the actions of the Trump administration are likely to drive families’ costs for care even higher.
Fortunately, legislators in several additional states are leading efforts to provide workers with paid family and medical leave. That includes New Mexico, where efforts stalled in the state senate this March. In Nevada, legislators had a first hearing on a bill in April to expand leave in the private sector. But by far the most likely next state that could see decisive action is Pennsylvania.
Map 1
Governors are in a “race to the top” on paid leave
Shapiro’s fellow governors—many of whom are his fellow 2028 presidential hopefuls—seem to be competing to be the nation’s most pro-working-family governor, including by championing paid leave.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed into law a new statewide paid family and medical leave program in June 2023 as part of a historic pro-worker package that also gave workers access to paid sick days. Similar to the proposal currently being considered in Pennsylvania, Minnesota’s law will provide up to twenty weeks per year in combined family and medical leave to roughly 3 million workers, with progressive benefits that replace 90 percent of wages for the lowest-paid workers. The program is considered one of the strongest in the nation, leading Minnesota to rank among the top five states for care policy in the 2024 Care Report Card, and making strong strides toward Governor Walz’s pledge to make Minnesota “the best state in the country to raise a family.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom strengthened California’s first-in-the-nation paid family and medical leave program in 2022, by boosting the share of a worker’s salary that is covered when they must take time off of work. Starting in 2025, workers earning less than $57,000 per year will receive 90 percent of their wages, up from 70 percent, making it more financially feasible for lower-paid workers to care for a new child or ill family member. Above that earnings threshold, eligible workers will receive 70 percent wage replacement, up from 60 percent. Governor Newsom also strengthened California’s paid sick and safe leave protections, increasing the minimum number of days available to workers from three to five starting in 2024. California’s robust paid leave and other family-friendly policies lead it to rank third in the 2024 Care Report Card.
Other rising-star governors have taken action as well despite facing challenging political landscapes. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer called for paid family and medical leave in 2023 and has also signed the state’s new paid sick and safe leave law in July 2024, following a prolonged court battle, alongside an increase in the state’s minimum wage to reach $15 by 2027. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed the Paid Leave for All Act in March 2023, guaranteeing workers—including domestic workers—forty hours of paid time per year that may be taken for any reason. And Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democratic governor in a red state, has proposed six weeks paid leave for state employees who have a new child or serious illness—which, if approved, will go into effect as early as summer 2025. Even a Republican governor in a deep red state—Alabama Governor Kay Ivey—signed into law a paid parental leave bill in April 2025, giving Alabama’s state employees paid time off after the birth of a child. While these actions fall short of the comprehensive paid family, medical, sick, and safe leave working families need, they represent strong steps forward.
Shapiro has an unparalleled opportunity to deliver for Pennsylvania workers and their families
Nearly four million Pennsylvania workers—66 percent—currently lack paid family and medical leave from their employer. That means each year, hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians need to take time off to care for themselves or a loved one, but cannot do so. And those who do, yet must take unpaid or partially paid leave, lose out on $2 billion in wages every year, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy.
The bipartisan Family Care Act currently being considered in the legislature would help Pennsylvania workers and their families by providing them with between twelve and twenty weeks of paid leave to bond with a new child, care for a family member, address their own serious health condition, attend to the needs of a military family member, or seek assistance for domestic or sexual violence. Workers would receive 90 percent of their weekly earnings up to half the state’s average weekly wage, and 50 percent of their earnings for greater amounts, capped at the state average weekly wage (about $1,350 per week). Benefits would be funded through a modest payroll deduction. The program would cover private-sector employees as well as state and local government employees—and self-employed workers could opt-in to participate as well.
Legislation like the Family Care Act could prevent thousands of Pennsylvania families from having to choose between keeping their jobs and providing critical care. Families like that of Josie Badger, who was born with a physical disability called congenital myasthenic syndrome that landed her in the hospital for months as a child. As Josie grew, she watched her parents—two teachers—struggle to keep their jobs and make ends meet without paid family and medical leave. Their fellow teachers donated paid time off so her mother could spend time in the hospital. Josie, now co-chair of Pennsylvania’s Family Care Coalition, is advocating to ensure no other Pennsylvania family is left without the leave to care for a disabled or ill child.
Last year, with all eyes on Pennsylvania, a bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers came close to passing a similar bill—but Governor Shapiro did not include it in his legislative priorities. The U.S. Department of Labor estimated that over 260,000 eligible Pennsylvania workers would have an approved application for leave in a year after experiencing a covered family or medical need.
This year’s bill gives Governor Shapiro an unparalleled opportunity to champion statewide paid leave and deliver for the workers of Pennsylvania. Yet he has so far failed to capitalize on this bipartisan opportunity, despite promises to promote bipartisan priorities in Pennsylvania. While Shapiro’s administration did modestly increase the amount of parental leave that state employees can take from six weeks to eight weeks in 2024, he has not yet seized the chance to support four million additional Pennsylvania workers and their families.
Pennsylvania instead has become a testing ground for efforts to undermine robust paid leave
Unfortunately, Governor Shapiro has instead enabled Pennsylvania to become a testing ground for a policy that threatens workers’ access to paid leave and other critical benefits. In 2024, gig company DoorDash—with Shapiro’s support—launched what it calls a “portable benefits savings pilot” for delivery drivers.
As recent research by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) describes, the DoorDash program creates a meager “savings account” in place of the robust benefits workers need—such as paid leave, health insurance, and retirement accounts. Under the program, DoorDash contributes 4 percent of delivery workers’ pre-tip earnings. NELP finds workers participating in the DoorDash program earn an average of less than $9 per hour before tips (or $19 per hour after tips) and work an average of twenty hours per week. The amounts are small: DoorDash contributed an average of just about $31 per month to participating Pennsylvania workers’ accounts in 2024. DoorDash workers can use up to the amount in their savings account if they need to take leave, purchase health insurance, or for other purposes. By contrast, under Pennsylvania’s Family Care Act paid leave proposal, an eligible low-paid worker who takes time to care for a loved one would receive 90 percent of their wages, including tips, for up to twelve to twenty weeks. So that same DoorDash worker, if they instead participated in the Family Care Act program, would receive up to $1,470 a month in paid leave benefits. It would take the average worker in DoorDash’s pilot nearly four years to accrue that amount in their savings account. (See Table 1.)
DoorDash’s pilot stands in contrast to true portable benefits, as would be created by Pennsylvania’s paid family and medical leave bill, which accrue as individuals work and follow individuals from job to job. In addition to robust state paid family and medical leave programs, other examples of true portable benefits programs include unemployment insurance and Social Security. True portable benefits programs pool risk to provide benefits that are adequate for individuals to balance work and family responsibilities and weather emergencies. By contrast, DoorDash’s pilot puts the risk on the individual to self-insure through savings.
The United States has long seen efforts to undermine robust portable benefit systems, often motivated by businesses’ opposition to contributing to these systems. In recent years, gig companies have led efforts to exclude their workers from existing portable benefits systems by classifying them as independent contractors instead of employees, enabling these companies to avoid payroll taxes while denying workers protections such as paid leave and unemployment insurance, as well as minimum wage and overtime.
To reduce opposition from workers and policymakers, companies have advanced inadequate substitutes, such as DoorDash’s savings accounts. And a federal bill introduced in Congress, the Modern Worker Security Act (H.R. 1320), would guarantee companies like DoorDash can continue to classify their workers as independent contractors rather than employees while offering fake portable benefits.
Conclusion
With federal action that will truly support workers unlikely to come soon, progress on paid leave is in the hands of the states. Governor Shapiro can show he stands with Pennsylvania’s 6 million workers and their families by supporting Pennsylvania’s paid family and medical leave bill—rather than inadequate substitutes—and set an example for the entire nation.
Tags: pennsylvania, paid family leave, josh shapiro