A new study on expanding paid family leave in Connecticut estimates a startup cost of $13.6 million. Ongoing costs would approach $18.5 million for salaries but would be covered by employee contributions.
The report, conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, was required by the General Assembly last year. The Permanent Commission on the Status of Women said the plan favors an employee-contribution model that would not require employers to pay into the self-funding system.
Business lobbying groups including the Connecticut Business & Industry Association oppose the adoption of paid family sick leave.
The program put forward by the Campaign for Paid Family Leave is solvent after a two-year startup period, the report said. It would require 0.54 percent of an employee’s earnings in order to fund that employee at 100 percent wage replacement. The report recommends collecting the premiums for a year before workers would be eligible for paid family leave.
The state would need to hire about 120 employees to administer what could be 100,000 family leave claimants annually.
The estimated startup costs will include initial technology development including hardware, software and programing ($7.7 million) salaries and benefits for additional employees involved in the initial planning and training before the program goes into effect ( $4.7 million), overhead and capital needs including office space, phone lines, and computers for staff ($776,700), and initial outreach and education efforts to raise awareness of the program ($340,000). In total the report estimates the initial startup costs at $13.6 million.
