Now that leaders of Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program have had more than two-and-a-half years to observe how it works, they are seeking several changes around reporting and record-keeping — many of which are likely to please employers.

FAMLI — which offers up to 12 weeks of partially paid leave annually to all private-sector workers needing to care for themselves or a loved one, welcome a new child or escape domestic violence — has been collecting fees since 2023 and offering benefits since 2024. About 6,000 workers per week request leave — roughly twice the amount that did so in 2024 — and the program paid out about $1.1 billion in benefits last year.

Despite the increased usage of the program — a statistic that program director Tracy Marshall attributed to a variety of factors, including heightened knowledge of the benefits and repeat usage by parents having their second children since its inception — the program is operating at costs slightly below projections. That is why officials have proposed that the fee that is split equally between employers and employees fall slightly next year from 0.88% of a worker’s paycheck to 0.86%.

Marshall said in an interview that if the popularity of the program continues to rise, the fees — which began at 0.9% and fell to 0.88% at the start of this year — likely will stabilize and won’t keep going down. But officials are able this year to continue to take advantage of a large reserve fund they built up in the year...

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