Purpose

To inform agencies of the implementation of the New York State Paid Family Leave

Affected Employees

Employees in bargaining units 67 (Housing and Community Renewal DC-37) and 98 (IOLA Temporary State Commissions)

Background

In 2016, the Governor signed into law a comprehensive Paid Family Leave policy. The law provides for a deduction from employee wages to fund the program. Paid Family Leave coverage is funded by employee payroll deductions. State employees who are represented by a union may be covered if Paid Family Leave is collectively bargained.

The New York State Department of Financial Services has announced that the 2019 premium rate and the maximum weekly employee contribution for coverage will be 0.153% (0.00153) of an employee’s weekly wage, up to the statewide average weekly wage. According to the New York Department of Labor, the 2019 statewide average weekly wage is $1,357.44. Based on this 2019 average weekly wage amount, the maximum employee premium deduction for Paid Family Leave will be $107.97 per year. The corresponding maximum deduction is as follows:

Effective Date(s)

Deductions will start being taken from employees’ pay on July 10, 2019 (Administration).

Eligibility Criteria

All employees in the above mentioned bargaining units are required to be covered for this program.

OSC Actions

OSC has created Action/Reason codes to identify employees who have received approval to use the NY Paid Family Leave benefit:

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

Agency Actions

Agencies must identify which of their employees in the eligible bargaining units are not required to have the deduction taken for the NY Paid Family Leave program and:

• obtain a signed waiver from the employee (form can be found at https://paidfamilyleave.ny.gov/forms) and retain the form in the employee’s record; AND
• update the employee’s FLI Status field to ‘Exempt’. See Job Aid_A for instructions.

Agency Actions – Earnings

Agencies are responsible for using the correct Leave of Absence Reason code in PayServ. For eligibility criteria pertaining to the Paid Family Benefit, agencies should refer to: www.ny.gov/PaidFamilyLeave If an employee has initially been placed on a Leave of Absence with an incorrect reason code, the agency must correct the Action/Reason code to PFL as soon as they are notified that the leave of absence is due to Paid Family Leave.

If there are no subsequent rows in the employee’s job history, the agency must enter the following transactions on Job Data:

• The appropriate Rein Leave transaction
• Leave of Absence - LOA/PFL

If there are subsequent rows, the agency must submit a Job Action Request DTA/Cor Hist and enter the reason in the status reason box on the page.

If an employee is no longer receiving the Paid Family Leave Benefit, the proper Return from Leave code (RFL/PFL) must be submitted.

If a leave of absence transaction is submitted retroactively, refer to Payroll Bulletins #470 and #1038 for information regarding overpayments and their recovery.

The use of NY Paid Family Leave will not affect an employee’s anniversary date or increment code. However, this benefit is not eligible for Retirement service credit.

Control-D Reports Available After Processing

A Control-D report - NTAX511 (Paid Family Leave) has been created to provide agencies with a list of all employees with the NY Paid Family Leave deduction and the amount taken.

Tax Information

The Paid Family Leave deduction will appear as an after tax deduction on the employee paycheck and will be reported on the employee Form W-2 for tax year 2019.

Deduction Refund Processing

Refund requests for an erroneously processed Paid Family Leave deduction should be submitted via email by the Agency Payroll Officer to the Tax and Compliance mailbox. The email subject line should state “Paid Family Leave Refund Request.” The Agency Payroll Officer should provide the: Emplid, Employee Name, and Refund Amount.

Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice

The Paid Family Leave deduction will be displayed on the Payroll Register. The deduction description (NY Paid Family Leave), the amount deducted and the year to date deduction total appear on the employee’s paycheck stub or direct deposit advice statement. Agencies will be able to view the deduction for PFL in PayServ on the “Review Paycheck” page under Taxes.

Questions

Questions regarding Paid Family Leave or the payroll deduction should be directed to the Department of Civil Service at [email protected].

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