Barber proposes new paid family and medical leave insurance tax

U.S. Rep. Ron Barber is cosponsoring legislation that would establish a national insurance program funded with taxes on employee wages and employers to provide paid family and medical leave. Employees and employers would be taxed two cents for every $10 (0.2%) in wages to fund the program.

The Social Security Administration would collect fees and distribute benefits.

“No one should have to choose between a paycheck and a family or caring for a loved one in need,” Barber said in a statement released on Friday.

Barber is an original cosponsor of the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, known as the FAMILY Act. Under the act, eligible employees – including those who are self-employed or who work part-time – could take up to 12 weeks away from their jobs to take care of themselves or a family member while being paid up to two-thirds of their wages.

Employees could take paid leave for the same reasons they currently take Family Medical Leave: to address their own serious health issue, including pregnancy or childbirth; to deal with the serious health issue of a parent, spouse, domestic partner or child; to care for a new child; and/or for particular military care-giving and leave purposes.

Currently, Family and Medical Leave law provides unpaid leave for serious illness, but only about half of the workers qualify for this unpaid leave, and many more simply cannot afford to take it because it is unpaid. Only 12 percent of workers in the U.S. have access to paid family leave through their employers, and less than 40 percent of workers have access to personal medical leave.