A Guide to Implementing Paid Family Leave-Lessons From California

Authors provided an overview of the basic components of California’s Paid Family Leave Program (PFL) and its history. In addition, the authors discussed "five areas crucial to successful implementation and key lessons learned in each of these areas" (p.4).

1. Outreach and education- The small amount of funding allocated for outreach and education posed a challenge to program success.

2. Administration- California's Employment Development Department “had problems getting adequate staff on board for claims processing due to a hiring freeze" during implementation to provide PFL. (p.14)

3. Employer issues- Employers were confused about the different family leave laws. They sometimes did not provide the required information to employees and occasionally provided inaccurate information due to this confusion.

4. Policy issues-Three policy concerns arose. First, “the lack of job protection prevents many workers from exercising their rights under the PFL program” (p.16). Second, “due to problematic coordination with other state and federal leave laws,…confusion remains about whether leaves are job protected, how to transition from one kind of leave to another, and whether multiple kinds of benefits can be used simultaneously” (p.17). Finally, around 10 percent of PFL claims were rejected because not all family members are covered under the statute.

5. Research, evaluation, and data collection: Because PFL does not require the collection of certain data or the evaluation of program effectiveness, there is very limited information about beneficiaries of the program. (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• "Paid Family Leave outreach received a significant boost from existing advocacy structures" (p.12). • To effectively administer a paid family program, there needs to be well funded technology and telephone infrastructure to answer claimants’ questions (often in several languages) and process claims (p.14). • "Employers should be provided with adequate training on Paid Family Leave programs" (p.15). • "Lack of job protection prevents many workers from exercising their rights under the [paid family leave program]" (p.15). • "Very limited information is collected about the beneficiaries of [Paid Family Leave] programs" (p.17). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): O’Leary, Ann; Savitsky, Zoe
• Organizational Author(s): Berkeley Center for Health, Economic and Family Security
• Funding Source: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Rosenberg Foundation, Families Values @ Work, U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies