Connecticut companies compensate for registering for paid family and medical go away program

As the six-month grace period for companies to register and contribute to Connecticut’s paid family and sick leave program comes to an end, PFML says only 19,000 companies have not yet registered.

However, this number includes companies that may not be required to participate.

“To date, 110,458 registrants have come through CT’s paid vacation registration portal,” said Andrea Comer, PFML’s communications director, in an email. “Based on government records, we believe there could be about 19,000 companies in Connecticut that have not yet registered, although we know this list includes sole proprietorships and self-employed people who are not required to participate.”

The recent number of registered participants is a big change from the beginning of the year when it was revealed that 44,000 companies had not yet registered for the program and had not yet implemented the 0.5 percent wage deduction paid by employees from their paychecks had.

By law, Connecticut businesses should register and begin wage deduction in January 2021. In response to the pandemic, however, the companies were given a grace period until the end of June, after which the back payments would fall on the employer.

Those companies that were in arrears with the registration and the deduction were allowed to deduct up to 1.5 percent from the employee’s remuneration in order to catch up on their contributions.

Even the state of Connecticut struggled with deductions and required a software change to handle wage deduction for non-union government employees. The Office of the State Comptroller said the government employee deductions were made in April.

However, the 110,000 companies registered for the program surpass the PFML agency’s target of 104,000 companies.

Comer says that in addition to the sole proprietorships and self-employed workers who may make up some of the remaining 19,000 businesses, some businesses may also have closed permanently due to the pandemic.

There are also companies headquartered outside of Connecticut or outside the country.

“After all, some of the units may be based outside Connecticut and have not been the recipients of our public relations efforts,” Comer said. “We have an armed approach to communicating with these entities.”

Although Connecticut employees will contribute to the program throughout 2021, employees will not be able to use the program until 2022.

The Paid Family and Sick Leave Program provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave for medical reasons or to care for blood relatives or friends who are like family members.

The program represented an expansion of the companies that were previously required to provide family and sick leave. Under federal law, companies with 50 or more employees were required to grant unpaid family and sick leave. During this time, employees could use vacation or sick leave to get paid.

Connecticut’s program reduced the number of employees to two or more and set up the PFML trust fund to collect salary deductions and use the cash offer for family and sick leave entitlements. The program, rejected by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, was put into effect in 2019 by Governor Ned Lamont.

** Meghan Portfolio contributed to this item **