State Updates
California
The Employment Development Department (EDD) has announced that the maximum weekly benefit for the State Disability Insurance (SDI) program, which includes Paid Family Leave benefits, will increase from $1,620 to $1,681 for 2025. As a reminder, the EDD previously confirmed that the contribution rate for 2025 will increase to 1.2% (currently 1.1%) and the Voluntary Plan Assessment Rate will increase to 0.168% (currently 0.154%). The assessment rate is 14% of the SDI contribution rate multiplied by taxable wages.
Maine
The Maine Department of Labor has completed their educational webinar series for the new Paid Family and Medical Leave Program (as a reminder, contributions begin January 1, 2025 with benefits available as of May 1, 2026). You can find the PowerPoint slides and the webinar recordings here – scroll down to the Education Webinars tab. Also available are some helpful employer resources:
What Employers Need to Know for 2025
Paid Family and Medical Leave Labor law poster
Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Earned Sick Time Law (details about the law can be found here) has been amended to include an additional reason for use of sick time. Employers are required to allow employees to use accrued time off to address their own physical and mental health needs, and those of their spouse, if the employee or their spouse experiences pregnancy loss, failed assisted reproduction, adoption, or surrogacy, effective November 21, 2024. The Office of the Attorney General will be providing a new notice of employee rights to reflect the new covered reason and the new notice must be posted in the workplace.
The Department of Family and Medical Leave (DFML) has also released the 2025 MA PFML workplace poster, which must be displayed in your MA workplace and can be found here. The separate 2025 notices for current employees and new hires should also be updated and provided to them no later than December 2, 2024.
New Jersey
After two years of not collecting employee contributions for the Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) program, the time has finally come to collect contributions once again. In 2025, employees will contribute 0.23% of the first $165,400 in covered wages, with a maximum contribution of $380.42. As a reminder, the contribution rate for employers varies from 0.10% to 0.75%. For 2025, the taxable wage cap for employers will be $43,300, so employers can expect to contribute between $43.30 and $324.75 on the first $43,300 earned by each employee during the 2025 calendar year.
For Family Leave Insurance (FLI), employees will contribute 0.33% of the first $165,400 in covered wages, with a maximum contribution of $545.82. Only the employee contributes to the FLI program, so no required employer contributions here.
Washington
The Evergreen State’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program recently announced the contribution rate for 2025: 0.92% (up to the Social Security cap, $176,000). This is an increase from 2024’s rate of 0.74%. Effective January 1, 2025, employers with 50 or more employees in the U.S. will be responsible for contributing 28.48%, with employees contributing the other 71.52%. On another note, the Employer Toolkit, mandatory poster, and optional paystub insert will be updated soon and available on the Washington Paid Leave website in November. We will notify you once these 2025 resources become available.
Canada Updates
Manitoba
Previously covered in this newsletter, we are happy to announce that Bill 9, The Employment Standards Code Amendment Act has received royal assent as of November 7, 2024. Effective as of that date, the bill amends the province’s ESC to extend the length of leave for one’s own serious injury or illness from 17 weeks to 27 weeks. This change creates an alignment between the duration of the leave with that of the federal Employment Insurance (EI) sickness benefits duration. Now that this Bill has passed, it is important to note that employees who may currently be on this leave, or who have notified their employer of the need for leave but have not yet begun, will be entitled to the full 27 weeks available.
Ontario
Physicians in Ontario, rejoice! Bill 190, Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 recently received royal assent, which amends the Employment Standards Act (ESA). Effective as of October 28, 2024, employers are now prohibited from requiring employees to provide a certificate from a “qualified health practitioner” as evidence of their entitlement to part or all of their 3 days of ESA statutory sick leave. However, an employer can still require an employee to provide evidence that is reasonable in the circumstances to show the employee is entitled to the leave – examples of reasonable evidence can include a receipt from a drugstore or pharmacy, or a medical bracelet from a hospital.
One other change to the ESA that is now effective is that the definition of a “qualified health practitioner” now includes a psychologist. We recommend making the time as soon as possible to review your company handbook to determine if any changes are needed in respect to these amendments from Bill 190, especially if you include Ontario-specific leave benefits information.
Prince Edward Island
This province’s government has recently announced the proposed replacement of their current Employment Standards Act (ESA) following a 2-year long comprehensive review. The ESA outlines labor rules and responsibilities in Prince Edward Island, spanning topics in areas such as leaves of absence, overtime, vacation and holiday pay, and more. Interested stakeholders were able to share their feedback on the draft by November 1, 2024. Although the comment period has closed, the effective date of the replacement Act has not been announced, as there is associated regulatory work that will be needed in order to complete the transition. We will keep you informed on when we can expect the transition to occur, as well as the relevant changes to the laws that can affect you and your employees in the province.
Quebec
The day has finally arrived for Bill 68, An Act mainly to reduce the administrative burden of physicians, which has recently received royal assent to become law and becomes effective as of January 1, 2025. If you need a refresher on what this bill is about, it prohibits employers from requiring employees to provide a medical note for absences due to illness, or for certification should an employee be absent to provide care to a child or person whom the employee acts as a caregiver. This limitation applies to the first three periods of absence, not exceeding three consecutive days, per 12-month period.
