Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform CUNY agencies of the additional bargaining units being added for the NYS Paid Family Leave program.

Affected Employees

All employees in the below bargaining units will be affected.

Background

The City University of New York (CUNY) agreed to implement the New York State Paid Family Leave Program (PFL) beginning January 1, 2021. CUNY represented employees who meet the eligibility requirements will be covered under PFL.

The New York State Department of Financial Services has announced that the 2023 premium rate and the maximum weekly employee contribution for coverage will be 0.455% (0.00455) of an employee’s weekly wage, up to the statewide average weekly wage. Based on the 2023 average weekly wage amount, the maximum employee premium deduction for Paid Family Leave will be $399.43 per year. 

Effective Dates

Deductions for affected employees will begin in paychecks dated April 6, 2023.

Eligibility Criteria

All the employees in the above bargaining units (T7, TN and TV) are required to be covered under this program.

OSC Actions

OSC will set the FLI (Family Leave Insurance) Status on the State Tax Date page to ‘Subject’ for all employees in the above bargaining units. The FLI Status will be set to “Not Applicable” for employees who are not eligible. 

OSC has created Action/Reason codes to identify employees who have received approval to use the PFL benefit:

• LOA/PFL- Leave of Absence/Paid Family Leave
• RFL/PFL- Return from Leave/Paid Family Leave

OSC will deduct PFL from employees’ paychecks using the current rate of 0.0455% (0.00455), not to exceed the maximum deduction of $399.43 annually. 

Agency Actions

Agencies must notify affected employees.

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Tax and Compliance mailbox.