Employers: Increase In Paid Family Leave Benefits (WC & DBL, PFL explained)

If you are a NYS employer and have employees*, you are required to carry NYS a Workers’ Compensation policy (WC), and a NYS Disability Benefit policy (DBL) that now included mandatory Paid Family Leave (PFL) benefits.  Beginning January 1, 2019 employees will see an increase in their benefit amount and employers may deduct a larger contribution from the payroll as well.

Often employers and employees are confused as to what the difference is between WC and DBL.  WC is if an injury, illness, or disease is work related. DBL is off the job or non-work related.

Statutory Disability benefits, minimum amount an employee could collect was 50% of the statewide weekly wage not to exceed $170 a week.  Employers have the option to increase this coverage for additional premium.

Paid Family Leave was also 50% of the wage for up to 8 weeks.  As of January 1, 2019 the benefit goes up to 55% of the weekly wage for up to 10 weeks.

Employers may elect to have employees contribute to these benefits with for a maximum contribution allowed.

For 2019, the maximum contribution rate for Paid Family Leave will go from 0.126% to 0.153% of the employee’s gross annualized wages capped at the new annualized New York State Average Weekly Wage (NYSAWW) of $70,569.72* per year (learn more here); which translates to a maximum annual premium contribution of $107.97 per employee.

The rate for Paid Family Leave has been increased 21.4%. This takes into consideration the increase of benefits for 2019 which has also been confirmed as part of the rate announcement. When taking into account wage inflation (new NYSAWW), the total maximum contribution goes up by 26.1%.

If you are an employer in NYS and have a question about DBL or WC policies or benefits please feel free to contact us.

*Some NYS employers even without employees are required to carry WC, DBL/
PFL policies.