Maryland Wins Paid Leave

The Family Values @ Work network celebrates our Maryland partners in winning a statewide paid leave program. The Maryland victory brings the number of states with paid leave to 11 and the program’s robust design shows the impact of our movement’s push to make paid leave accessible and affordable for all. 

The Maryland legislature passed the paid leave bill in early April, then voted on it a second time on Monday, to override Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto. The governor is out of step with most of his constituents: 88% of Marylanders polled approve of paid leave.

More than 2.5 million workers will gain access to paid family and medical leave. The program will offer between 12 and 24 weeks of job-protected leave that can be used in a wide range of circumstances, including to welcome a new child through birth, fostering, or adoption, to address one’s own or a relative’s serious medical condition, or to deal with family needs around military deployment. The definition of family is broad and the program’s sliding scale for wage replacement will mean that those with the lowest incomes will see 90% reimbursement of their pay. Local and state government employees will be covered–a key provision for ensuring that workers of color, who make up a significant portion of the public workforce, gain meaningful benefit from the program.

“Our partners in Maryland, organizing together as the Time to Care MD coalition, have won an equitable, comprehensive policy that is going to change the lives of working families for the better,” said Josephine Kalipeni, Family Values @ Work’s executive director. “High wage replacement levels for low-paid workers, job protection, the inclusion of municipal and state employees, and an inclusive family definition are all essential to advancing economic, racial, and gender justice.”

Membership in the Family Values @ Work network helped Time to Care coalition members develop and advocate for a strong policy, by learning from the experiences of the 10 states that won paid leave before them. “This win is thanks in part to the strong work of the FV@W network, states building on states,” said Time to Care MD organizer Matan Zeimer, who works for FV@W partner Jews United for Justice. 

The win is also thanks to the more than 2,000 organizations, businesses, and individuals who were involved in organizing for paid leave in the state. “Our collective action wins the change that working families need,” Kalipeni said. “Common-sense policies like comprehensive paid family and medical leave should be universal. Since they aren’t, FV@W and our state partners will continue this fight until everyone has access to the programs they need to thrive.”