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History
- Referred to labor
- Referred to labor
Companion bill
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Establishes the New York family leave act providing for leaves of absence for the birth or adoption of a child
In Assembly Committee · Labor · Sponsor Aravella Simotas
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S120
Title of bill
An act to amend the labor law, the civil service law and the insurance law, in relation to establishing the New York family leave act
Purpose or general idea of bill
To amend the labor law, the civil service law and the insurance law in relation to providing for an additional 12 week leave of absence for the birth or adoption of a child without payor benefits, but with job protection and maintenance of insurance coverage through self-paid premiums.
Summary of specific provisions
The Act will amend the labor law by adding section 202-1 and the civil service law by adding section 159-d to provide that 12 week job and benefit protected leave guaranteed under the Federal Family Medical Leave Act. The act will further provide an additional 12 weeks of job protected leave, although the additional leave will not include payor benefits. Finally, the act amends the insurance law to guarantee maintenance of health care benefits through self-paid premiums.
Justification
Working families should be able to provide their children with the health and psychosocial benefits associated with parent bonding and breastfeeding.
Infant-parent bonding allows attachments to form. Proper attachment has a profound effect on immediate and future physical and emotional health for the child. Rates of mortality and maternal depression decrease with each additional week of parental leave. Verbal ability, math proficiency and reading scores are negatively affected by parents working in the first year of a child's life.
According to the journal Pediatrics breastfeeding should be continued for the first year of life, only supplemented by other nutrients and food at 6 months. Breastfeeding is a time-consuming process that is difficult to accomplish in the workplace.
For the infant, breastfeeding provides protection against infectious diseases, diarrhea, SIDS, diabetes, asthma, and certain types of cancer. Prolonged breastfeeding has also been shown to improve a child's cognitive development and psychosocial outcomes including higher IQ scores, teacher evaluations and better academic performance.
Breastfeeding is also associated with better maternal health outcomes, including a lower risk of breast and ovarian cancer and osteoporosis.
Additional parental leave has been proven a cost-effective method of decreasing health costs.
Prior legislative history
2011-12: S.6896
Fiscal implications for state and local governments
Potential reduction in WIC, TANF, CHIP, and Medicaid payments.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date is authorized to be made on or before such date.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.