Paid Family Leave vs. Disability Benefits Law

September 18, 2017

Paid Family Leave (PFL) and Disability Benefits Law (DBL) are both intended to provide for the health and well-being of New York’s eligible workers.

But while PFL will be packaged as a rider to your DBL policy, you may be surprised at how much they differ. Here’s a look at some of the key distinctions.

Purpose

The main differentiator is that DBL is used for an employee’s own injury or illness, whereas PFL is used to care for, assist or bond with someone else. Specifically, an employee can use PFL to:

Provide care for a family member with a qualifying health condition
Bond with a child after birth or adoption; or to welcome a child into foster care
Help with family needs when someone is called into active military service

In some situations, an employee might qualify for both DBL and PFL at the same time. For example, a husband may be qualified to take disability leave after an auto accident and may also need to help his spouse who was hurt. As we point out in the Benefits section, only one type of leave can be used at a time.

Funding

For both programs, employers pay premiums to a carrier (unless they’re self-insured) and may elect to recoup costs through employee contributions. The state of New York sets the following limits.

	Disability Benefits Law	New York Paid Family Leave
Maximum Employee Contributions	$0.60/week	0.126% of salary up to an annual cap of $85.56 in 2018

Eligibility

PFL is a rider to statutory short-term disability policies (DBL) — unless you self-fund or your business is exempt — and beginning Jan. 1, 2018, employers who are required to provide DBL must provide PFL. However, employee qualifications differ.

	Disability Benefits Law	New York Paid Family Leave
Full-Time Definition	Employees working the number of hours that represent the company’s normal work week	Employees working 20 or more hours per week
Full-Time Definition	Eligible after working at least four consecutive weeks for a covered employer	Eligible after 26 weeks of employment with the same employer*
Part-Time Employees	Covered after working 25 work days for any covered employer(s)	Eligible after working 175 days for the same employer*

*Time out on DBL does not count toward eligibility.

Benefits

In rare instances where DBL and Paid Family Leave are both applicable, employees can choose which benefit to file for. They can also take both in sequence, up to each benefit’s respective limits. Here’s a look at key differences in how they can be used.

	Disability Benefits Law	New York Paid Family Leave
Payout and Limits	50% of the employee’s average weekly wage to a maximum of $170/week	50% of the employee’s average weekly wage in 2018 (capped at 50% of NY’s AWW), gradually increasing to 67% in 2021 (capped at 67% of NY’s AWW)
Waiting Period Before Benefit Is Paid	7 days from the beginning of a non-occupational disability event	None
Maximum Duration	26 weeks per consecutive 52-week period*	8 weeks in 2018, gradually increasing to 12 weeks in 2021 per consecutive 52-week period*
Job Protection While on Leave	None	'Employers must provide the same position or one comparable in wages or benefits '
Benefit Offsets	Benefits can be collected while using paid vacation days	Benefits cannot be collected while out on PTO, vacation or sick days or DBL