As the state marks the fifth year of its Paid Leave Act, the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority has launched an outreach campaign to educate both employers and employees about the program.
As the state marks the fifth year of its Paid Leave Act, the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority has launched an outreach campaign to educate both employers and employees about the program.
The campaign will use direct mail, webinars and outreach to municipalities, while also working with local chambers of commerce, and will include a leave management conference planned for this fall.
Erin Choquette. Contributed
Erin Choquette, CEO of the CT Paid Leave Authority, said the goal is to be accessible and help employers understand the program, but also to give “useful information to support their employees going on leave.”
Paid leave
The act, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2022, allows workers at qualified businesses in the state, and even some state employees, the ability to take up to 12 weeks of paid time off to address personal or family health needs.
The program is different from the older Connecticut Family and Medical Leave Act, which was approved in the 1990s and expanded in 2022 and guarantees job protection to employees taking leave from work.
The paid leave program is funded by a 0.5% payroll tax, collected mostly from private-sector workers, and by earnings from investments.
Since its inception, the program has paid out more than $1 billion in medical leave benefits to workers in the state.
The program also has amassed nearly $640 million in unspent funds via the payroll tax, leading some Republican state lawmakers to propose easing the payroll deduction by 20%.
“It’s completely unfair when you have (reserves) well over 100% … to continue to tax the worker” at the current rate, said Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding (R-Brookfield).
Safety net
During a recent interview with Hartford Business Journal, Choquette said reducing the payroll deduction would be a mistake.
She noted the deduction — 0.5% of wages up to the Social Security contribution limit — is already the lowest among the 14 paid leave programs nationwide.
While the trust fund currently holds more than enough money to cover one year of benefits, maintaining a reserve is an important safety net, she said.
State law did not establish a specific target for how large that reserve should be.
Instead, the law requires the authority’s board to work with actuaries to develop solvency metrics for the fund. The board reviews those metrics annually during public meetings each fall and posts them for public comment.
“We keep a close eye on the solvency metric to make sure that the fund is sufficient to provide benefits, not just this year and next year, but into the future,” Choquette said.
Claims rising
That’s particularly important because the number of claims for paid leave is increasing.
According to Choquette, both the number of applications and the number of approved claims increased by approximately 10% from calendar year 2024 to calendar year 2025.
According to a July actuarial report by Boston-based Spring Consulting Group, the authority’s claims and other expenses are projected to total $524 million in the current fiscal year. The report estimates $505.7 million in payroll tax collections and $23.3 million in investment income, for total revenue of about $529 million.
“We are definitely aware that at a certain point — potentially this year, the actuaries are still looking at it — claim costs may exceed income for the year,” Choquette said. “It doesn’t mean we’re out of sync. It just means that we’re coming to that point.”
That potential issue, however, does not deter the authority from promoting the program to employers and employees.
“This is workers’ money, and workers need to know how to use this program,” she said. “It would be unconscionable to take the money and then not let people know about it, right?”
Outreach
That’s why the authority is doing its new outreach campaign.
It will include contacting new businesses that register with the Secretary of the State’s office each month to inform them of the requirements under the paid leave law.
New businesses will be invited to a “Paid Leave 101” webinar, which will be held each month for employers and sole proprietors.
The authority also plans to hold a Leave Management Conference this fall for employers, human resources professionals and benefit coordinators. The conference will discuss topics related to leave management, including FMLA, other laws providing job-protected leave, supporting employees who are going on leave and developing policies and handbooks.
In addition, CT Paid Leave will conduct extensive outreach to all 169 municipalities to explore ways to collaborate so that residents and employers are aware of the program. Events in Berlin, Cheshire, Farmington, New Milford and South Windsor have already been scheduled.
CT Paid Leave also established its Community Education Coordinators program in 2024 to support outreach efforts and provide technical support to employers and employees. It has contracted with two chambers — the Windham Regional Chamber and Central CT Chambers of Commerce — with a specific focus on employer support.
Information on the paid leave program and the outreach efforts is available on the state website at www.ctpaidleave.org.
