The New Hampshire Paid Family and Medical Leave Plan (NH PFML), often known as the Granite State Paid Household Go away Plan, is the primary and solely state-sponsored voluntary paid depart plan. Eligible New Hampshire employers (public employers and personal employers with greater than fifty staff) and eligible staff are eligible to buy the NH PFML insurance coverage plan. (State staff are solely entitled to paid household depart.) NH PFML provides coated staff as much as 60% of their common weekly wage, as much as the utmost Social Safety wage, as much as six weeks per 12 months, plus seven calendar days. unpaid ready interval per 12 months, for absences from work for assured occasions. Coated occasions embrace:
- the delivery or adoption of a kid or the care of a new child or a newly adopted or fostered little one throughout the first 12 months;
- caring for a partner, little one or guardian of an worker with a critical medical situation;
- caring for a partner, little one or relative within the army;
- army requirement; and
- a critical private medical situation impartial of employment, if the employer doesn’t provide short-term incapacity insurance coverage.
Workers can take steady or intermittent leaves with a minimal of four-hour blocks. Employers who choose into this system are required to take part in payroll deductions and preserve worker medical insurance protection whereas on depart. Employers with fifty or extra staff who present NH PFML to their staff are required to reinstate furloughed staff to the place they held previous to the depart, or to an equal place in accordance with the Federal Household and Medical Go away Act ( FMLA) or the Federal Household and Medical Go away Act. Go away insurance coverage underneath NH Rev. Stat. Anna. Part 275:37-d.
What choices do employers have underneath the NH PFML?
Employers who buy NH PFML insurance coverage from New Hampshire’s PFML Insurance coverage Accomplice, both instantly or by means of an insurance coverage agent, dealer or advisor, are eligible for credit score enterprise tax (BET) of as much as 50% of their bonus funds. Granite State employers have a number of choices to think about, together with whether or not to completely fund premium prices for workers, share premium prices with their staff, or go all the premium prices on to staff. Though New Hampshire Division of Insurance coverage rules permit different insurance coverage firms to hunt approval to offer paid household and medical depart profit plans, employers who underwrite different insurance coverage paid household and medical depart or equal employer protection is not going to be eligible for BET credit score.
The NH PFML plan continues to be evolving and there are nonetheless uncertainties about its implementation. Some sources recommend that employers may have the choice of providing six or twelve weeks of paid depart, and others recommend solely six weeks. The twelve-week choice would apply solely to employers providing group insurance coverage, if in any respect. Particular person plans and state staff are solely entitled to 6 weeks, plus an unpaid ready interval of seven calendar days.
What choices do staff have underneath the NH PFML?
Eligible staff can buy NH PFML for themselves if their employers don’t present NH PFML insurance coverage or an equal profit. The NH PFML particular person insurance coverage plan supplies staff with six weeks of wage alternative at 60%, and premiums are capped at $5 per week or $260 per 12 months. Workers on a person insurance coverage plan are topic to a seven-month ready interval earlier than submitting claims and should exhaust a interval of seven unpaid calendar days as soon as per profit interval earlier than advantages may be paid.
When does registration begin?
The registration interval for employers begins on December 1, 2022 and can stay open. For particular person plans, the registration interval begins on January 1, 2023 and can stay open till March 2, 2023.
Key factors to recollect
It is the primary voluntary state-paid household and medical depart scheme within the nation, permitting staff who want to take part to use for state-paid depart with out requiring the fee of bonuses for retiring staff. Employers can take part and provide no less than six weeks of paid trip. If employers select to not take part within the NH PFML plan, staff can join particular person insurance coverage that present six weeks of paid trip, topic to a seven-month ready interval. Registration begins for employers on December 1, 2022 and will likely be accessible on an ongoing foundation. Worker enrollment begins January 1, 2023 and ends March 2, 2023.
Ogletree Deakins will proceed to observe and report on steerage relating to the NH PFML plan and submit updates on Benefits and executive compensation, Authorized leavesand New Hampshire blogs as extra data turns into accessible. Vital data for employers can also be accessible by way of the online seminar and podcast applications.
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