Every person will need to take time off work at some point to deal with a medical need. But currently, New Yorkers are just one cancer diagnosis, car accident, or difficult pregnancy away from losing their job, health insurance, and financial security.  

New York’s paid medical leave benefit (it’s known as “temporary disability insurance” or “TDI”) is what workers rely on when serious health issues arise. But shockingly, $170 per week is the maximum they can receive. This amount has not been raised since 1989. This puts New York’s TDI benefit wildly behind other states, nearly all of which allow workers to earn over $1,000 per week. It’s also outrageously unequal to New York’s paid family leave benefit (PFL), which offers workers up to $1,151 per week to care for a seriously ill loved one or to bond with a new child.  As now constituted, TDI also provides beneficiaries no job protection.

To put it simply: In New York, if your father breaks his leg and you need to care for him, you can receive $1,151 per week and will have full job protection. But if you break your leg and need to be out of work, you will receive only $170 per week and have no job protection. 

Today, 35 years after its inception, it’s finally time to update and modernize TDI.

A Better Balance, an organization I helped found and now co-lead, worked to create and pass New York’s PFL program in 2016.  Now we need a decent paid medical leave benefit too. No one should be forced to risk their job and financial security as they navigate personal health crises like cancer, pregnancy complications, long Covid, or a car accident, or as they seek mental health or substance abuse treatment.

At our organization’s legal hotline, we hear frequently from workers who are upset and frustrated by the lack of a real medical leave program in our state. 

• Ruth, a janitor on Long Island who needed time off to recover from childbirth, told us she could not live on $170 a week, and added, “I consider it unfair when you work hard and pay your taxes only to be told that there is little to nothing available to help you through a significant life event.” 

• Delia, a domestic worker recovering from surgery, was distressed to learn that the most she could receive was $170 a week, not enough to pay her rent or other bills, especially when she was fired by her employer due to her illness – something a reformed TDI ought to prohibit. 

• Michelle, a worker struggling with long Covid complications, told us, “I was shocked that New York’s disability benefits are so low. How do you survive on these minimal amounts?” 

Other callers have been forced to forego much-needed medical treatment and recovery because it is simply impossible to pay rent and bills and buy groceries on TDI.   

Fixing these problems should be an easy matter. New York’s groundbreaking 2016 PFL law was actually based on a what was then a decades-old TDI program. But unfortunately, TDI itself was left untouched. 

In the eight years since the passage of PFL many other states have surpassed New York by enacting stronger TDI benefits and protections, and adapting their laws to be flexible to the changing nature of workplaces and families. 

New Yorkers deserve better. And the cost of improvement is not high. Both TDI and PFL are social insurance programs which, like Social Security, are paid for through payroll deductions. Premiums are paid by all workers and employers throughout the state, making the cost to any individual worker or employer small. 

The clear need for improved TDI was recognized by Governor Kathy Hochul in her proposed budget for the next State fiscal year, starting April 1st. She proposes to raise the TDI benefit and provide job protection and health insurance continuation. However, her proposal remedies these problems very slowly, over the course of five years. In addition, it permanently freezes benefits for the latter part of a TDI claim at $280 per week, without regard to inflation, and fails to institute a fair wage replacement rate ensuring that those who need benefits will have enough to live on. 

Hochul’s proposal also fails to permit intermittent leave for those who need to take time for treatments like chemotherapy and mental health therapy, and abandons new employees and freelancers when it comes to paid family leave, making them wait too long to be eligible.  

Fortunately, a bill sponsored by State Senator Jessica Ramos and Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages would more broadly and quickly improve both TDI and PFL. The bill enjoys broad support from unions, health advocacy groups, and legal services providers. 

The recently passed Senate and Assembly “one-house” budget bills incorporate many of the elements of the Ramos/Solages bill that are not in the governor’s budget proposal. All three budgets will increase the TDI benefit level while protecting jobs and health insurance during a worker’s absence from work. However, the Senate budget uses a progressive wage replacement to raise benefits and increases them on a much faster timeline than the governor’s proposal. It also contains important fixes to the length of time workers and independent contractors must wait to be covered by paid family leave. The Assembly version, while adding few of the additional improvements in the Ramos/Solages bill, does allow intermittent leave TDI coverage, which the Senate budget bill does not. 

The next step is negotiation over the elements of all these proposals for a final budget adopted by the full legislature. All elements of the Ramos/Solages bill in the one-house budgets deserve inclusion in the adopted budget. New Yorkers have waited too long for decent medical leave. The time is now to make the reforms necessary to ensure a stronger safety net for workers who need time to care for themselves and their family.

Sherry Leiwant is co-president and co-founder of A Better Balance, a national legal advocacy organization whose mission is to ensure that workers can care for themselves and their families without risking their economic security. ABB helped lead the campaign that enacted paid family leave in New York in 2016.

Photo by: liz west