Texas doesn’t have a state law requiring employers to provide parental leave, though federal law does provide some protections for parental leave, and most state agency policies provide some paid parental leave options.
But a headline in the Houston Chronicle notes a benefit that Texans do have and also poses a surprising question: Texas created a paid family leave plan. Why isn’t anyone using it?
For clarity on how this works, Texas Standard was joined by Taylor Goldenstein, a state bureau reporter with the Houston Chronicle.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity:
Texas Standard: If you go online, you’ll see that there isn’t a state law in Texas requiring paid parental leave. But you report the state does have a family leave plan. I didn’t know there was such a thing, and I bet a lot of Texans don’t either.
Taylor Goldenstein: Right. So they kind of turn to this insurance model where they let businesses go ahead and buy insurance, like they might buy health insurance, that they can either charge their employees for or split it with them. And that will cover that paid time off.
So in other words, they’ve set up an insurance program or at least some kind of insurance scheme through which these employers could buy the insurance. It wouldn’t be the employee buying it, except perhaps indirectly by being charged for it on their paycheck, right? So are there any other states that have plans like this?
Yes. So it’s become popular specifically among Republican states that don’t tend to have mandatory leave policies. And they’re looking more toward this private model. But it’s very early. It’s only been a year or two since these programs have been instituted.
Well, how many employers are actually using this arrangement? And what about employees? Do they know about it?
That’s a big question mark. So we looked into it and found that just two insurers were signed up to offer these plans, and they would not tell us how many were enrolled. So it’s really hard to say if people are even benefiting.
Why hasn’t this plan been talked about more and, for that matter, more widely adopted? Of course, as you admitted, it’s hard to know exactly how many employers have signed on.
Right. Well, the author of the bill, Representative Lacey Hull out of the Houston area, said that she’s not discouraged by this. She says it’s still early, so there’s still time, in her opinion. And it could increase over time — it’s still quite early.
Is there a time limit on it? Do you have to sign up before a certain date or what?
No, no time limit. It’s more just a situation where, you know, you can only use it if your employer offers it. And like I said, we don’t really know how many employers are offering it.
And the bill doesn’t require that these employers or the insurance companies report their enrollment. So it’s really going to be hard to gauge the progress of a program like this.
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You mentioned that there are other states that have similar programs. What are the stories coming out of those places?
Right. There are other states, including New Hampshire, which is one of the only states that we have data from. And there, they saw in their first year just 3% of their workforce enrolled in the program.
Is there anything being done or that could be done to stimulate interest in this sort of program? Are these expensive for companies that are signing on?
Yeah, that’s a good question. You could look at New Hampshire, although they also aren’t seeing great enrollment just yet. But one of the ways that states do it, like New Hampshire, is they added financial incentives for the companies to sign up. And that’s something that Texas hasn’t tried yet.
Interesting. Any efforts that you’re hearing about in this current legislative session that might change things – perhaps introducing mandatory family leave policies or maybe even just getting the word out that this is available? I wonder how many employers even realize that this is a possibility.
That’s a great question. On the mandatory paid leave, yes, there is a Democrat, also out of the Houston area, who plans to refile mandatory paid leave legislation that in the past has been at least a little bit bipartisan.
And on financial incentives, there’s some other legislation around tax credits for companies that offer paid leave plans.
I wonder why more hasn’t been said publicly about this. Is there just not the groundswell of support, the grassroots support for this?
Yeah, it’s a good question. I mean, it’s really, like I said, a question of how many of these employers are signing up. And it may indicate – I don’t know – it may indicate that not many employers are signing up.
