A new legislative task force has been approved to study the possibility of mandating paid leave for new parents, the seriously ill and those taking care of a sick family member.
Under the U.S. Family Medical Leave Act, workers must be allowed to take 16 weeks of unpaid leave if they or a family member falls ill, however eight in 10 can’t afford to take an unpaid leave, according to Connecticut’s  Family and Medical Leave Insurance coalition.
As a result, General Assembly members recently voted to create a task force to study family and medical leave insurance plans that would cover caregivers and determine who will pay for their wages, whether its their employers, themselves, or a combination of both.
“All good public policy flows from solid data, and such a task force will be able to ask the right questions early on to get a sense of the scope of the issue,” Teresa C. Younger, executive director of the Permanent Commission of the Status of Women, said in a release. “Unpaid prolonged leaves, whether to care for oneself or a family member, can curtail a person”™s financial security and asset-building, so it”™s an important issue to tackle.”
