D.C. expands Paid Family Leave benefits and issues updated notice

The D.C. Paid Family Leave law (officially called the D.C. Universal Paid Leave Act) provides partial wage replacement benefits to covered workers who need to take leave for certain family or medical reasons. The D.C. Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Support Act of 2022 amended this law to expand the amount of wage replacement benefits available to covered workers who take qualifying leaves. Effective October 1, 2022, covered workers are now entitled to up to 12 weeks of wage replacement benefits for qualifying parental, family, and/or medical leave reasons, plus up to two weeks of wage replacement benefits for prenatal care for pregnant employees, in a 52-week period (except that employees may not receive any combination of prenatal and medical leave benefits that exceeds 12 weeks). 

The Office of Paid Family Leave (OPFL) has also released its 2022 Employee Worksite Notice. Employers are required to post the notice in a conspicuous place at all worksites with covered employees by February 1, 2023, although OPFL encourages employers to display it now to make employees aware of recent changes to the law. In addition to posting, employers are required to provide the notice to covered employees at the following times: (i) to individual employees within 30 days of hire; (ii) to all employees at least once annually; and (iii) to an employee who provides notice that the employee needs leave for a qualifying event.

Key takeaways for employers:

• Employers that have D.C. Paid Family Leave policies in their handbooks should update their handbooks as needed to reflect the availability of expanded leave benefits. 
• Covered employers should replace all previously posted versions of the Employee Worksite Notice with the current version. The deadline to do so is February 1, 2023; however, employers should consider implementing the current notice as soon as practicable in order to coordinate leave benefits.

For more information or for assistance updating your D.C. Paid Family Leave policy, please contact one of the authors of this article or the Hogan Lovells lawyer with whom you regularly work.

Authored by George Ingham and Amy Folsom Kett. Saydee Schnider, a law clerk in the Northern Virginia office, also contributed to this post.