PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The state Senate next week will consider hiking Rhode Island's payroll tax for temporary disability benefits in order to expand the program to residents who leave work in order to care for a newborn or a sick relative, following passage Thursday of legislation by the Senate Finance Committee.
Committee passage comes as House leaders unveiled a version of the state budget this week that, they say, includes no increases in state taxes or fees.
The state's Temporary Disability Insurance program, or TDI, currently only covers those who suffer a non-work-related illness or injury.
It provides up to 30 full weeks of benefits, ranging from $72 to $736 a week through a tax of 1.2 percent on a worker's first $61,400 in earnings. Rhode Island is one of just five states in the nation with a mandatory TDI tax.
The proposal approved by the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday would grant those who leave work in order to care for a newborn or a sick relative up to 4 weeks of paid leave in the program's first year, up to 6 weeks in the second year and up to 8 weeks in the third year.
That should result in the average Rhode Island worker's weekly TDI tax increasing from $10.26 to about $10.90 in 2014, $11.54 in 2015 and $12.19 in 2016, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington D.C.
Sen. Gayle L. Goldin, a Providence Democrat who introduced the bill, has said her paid family leave proposal is modeled after laws in California and New Jersey. The other states with a mandatory TDI program are New York and Hawaii.
VIEW BILL HERE: 2013-S-0231Sub A2 Temporary Disability Insurance.pdf