Sen. Gillibrand introduces bill to create national paid work leave insurance program

[hrmjustin]

By MATTHEW DONDIEGO

New York's junior U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand appeared with Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and city and state lawmakers Friday morning to introduce legislation that would establish a national paid family and medical leave insurance program.

"We have to empower almost half of our work force and that means empowering women, to unleash their full economic potential," Gillibrand said. "This absolutely relies on keeping every woman who wants to work, in the work force and earning a paycheck."

The Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, or FAMILY Act, would create a worker-funded independent trust fund within the Social Security Administration to collect a portion of wages and administer paid work leave benefits. The independent trust would take 0.2 percent of an employee's wages to go towards funding the program — with worker's employers matching the contributions.

A worker's benefit levels would be equal to 66 percent of an individual worker's average monthly salary up to a capped monthly amount that would be indexed for the rate of inflation. According to Gillibrand, the cost to the average worker would amount to about one cup of coffee a week.

http://www.legislativegazette.com/Articles-Top-Stories-c-2014-01-10-86353.113122-Sen-Gillibrand-introduces-bill-to-create-national-paid-work-leave-insurance-program.html

[stg81]

1. I will never support her in anything after she disrespected the President

re Iran sanctions. She is a self-serving power-hungry politician in the worst sense of the word.

[hrmjustin]

2. I was angry over that as well.