Hochul signs bill adding siblings to paid family leave

A new bill signed by Gov. Hochul Monday allows siblings to be included in the state’s paid family leave legislation.

This would allow New Yorkers to have their jobs protected if they need to take time away to care for a sibling.

The governor is also calling on Washington to make this a federal law.

This comes after paid family leave was nixed from American Families Plan. It was originally 12 weeks of paid leave, whittled down to four weeks, but then cut entirely.

Under the bill, eligible workers can take off 12 weeks at 67% of their pay to a cap.

Gov. Hochul said this was personal to her, wishing she had this protection when she was giving birth years ago.

"I actually feel bad for the rest of the nation [that] has not caught up with us. We need a national policy on paid family leave. Do not leave it up to the individual state legislatures to do the right thing, and we hope that they can find a resolution to this problem in Washington as we speak, something I’ve been waiting for since I was a young mom many, many, many years ago,"

This bill will go into effect January 1, 2023.