Bill Text: HI HR33 | 2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Paid Family Leave; Task Force

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-03-22 - The committee(s) on LAB recommend(s) that the measure be deferred. [HR33 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2016-HR33-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	33
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the convening of a paid family leave task force to examine the benefits and costs of a potential paid family leave program in hawaii.

 

 

 

WHEREAS, women are disproportionately affected by the lack of access to paid leave for several reasons, including that women primarily serve as caregivers to family members, are not supported by labor policies that reflect the changing reality of workplace demographics, and often face the difficult decision of choosing between paid employment and caring for a child or a family member; and

 

     WHEREAS, paid family and medical leave has been identified as one method to closing the wage gap between men and women, and given the current stagnation of wages in Hawaii, the gender wage gap is not set to close until 2059; and

 

     WHEREAS, Forty-three per cent of workers in Hawaii do not have access to a single day of leave, whether it be for sick leave or family leave; 154,000 people in Hawaii serve as family caregivers; Hawaii has the fastest growing population of those sixty-five and older in the nation, and the number is expected to grow by eighty-one per cent by 2030; of those who need leave but cannot take it, nearly one in three need leave to care for an ill spouse or parent; and

 

WHEREAS, the majority of Hawaii's workforce cannot afford to take unpaid leave when needing to provide care to a newborn, bond with a new child, or care for a family member with a serious health condition; and 

 

     WHEREAS, the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 allows twelve weeks of unpaid leave to employees who have worked at a business that employs fifty or more employees; and

 

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Family Leave Law can provide an additional four weeks of unpaid family, but is only available to those employees who work at a business with more than one hundred employees, which means that the Hawaii Family Leave Law only applies to about 2.2 per cent of employers in Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, previous joint task forces on family caregiving convened by the Hawaii State Legislature have all rendered the same request and recommendation: family caregivers need adequate wage replacement and support when providing care; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, that a paid family leave task force be convened to examine the benefits and costs of a potential paid family leave program in Hawaii; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force is requested to:

 

(1)  Examine state paid family and medical leave programs that offer employees paid family and medical leave through an extension of Temporary Disability Insurance programs;

 

(2)  Examine state paid family and medical leave programs in states that have enacted but do not use Temporary Disability Insurance as a foundation for the program;

 

(3)  Gather information on the costs, including administrative start-up, technology build-out, and staffing costs, required to establish a state paid family and medical leave program in Hawaii;

 

(4)  Work with an economic analysis firm or program to develop an actuarial for the benefits offered by a State paid family and medical leave program; and

 

(5)  Review previous legislative task force reports on caregiving and paid leave; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force comprise the following members, or their designees:

 

(1)  Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Judiciary and Labor, who shall serve as a co-chair of the task force;

 

(2)  Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Labor and Public Employment, who shall serve as a co-chair of the task force;

 

(3)  Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health;

 

(4)  Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health;

 

(5)  Director of Labor and Industrial Relations;

 

(6)  Director of the Executive Office on Aging; and

 

(7)  Executive Director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the co-chairs of the task force are requested to invite the following, or their designees, to join the task force:

 

(1)  Executive Director of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii;

 

(2)  President of the Hawaii Caregiver Coalition;

 

     (3)  Two members to represent labor unions;

 

(4)  One member to represent a business with fifty or more employees;

 

(5)  One member to represent a business with between twenty-five and fifty employees; and

 

(6)  One member to represent a business with less than twenty-five employees; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force is requested to report its findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2017; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force cease to exist on December 31, 2017; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor; Speaker of the House of Representatives; President of the Senate; Director of Labor and Industrial Relations; Executive Director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; Director of the Executive Office on Aging; Executive Director of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii; and President of the Hawaii Caregiver Coalition.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Paid Family Leave; Task Force