THE MASSACHUSETTS PAID Family and Medical Leave program is truly life-changing. Since the law went into effect in 2021, more than 200,000 Massachusetts workers have used the program to take paid time off work to care for their health or to care for a sick family member. The program has paid more than $1.6 billion in benefits to stabilize workers’ incomes for the weeks or months they can’t work. Massachusetts is one of a dozen states to offer this benefit.
New mothers and fathers can pay their bills while they care for their newborn baby or adopted child. Major surgery no longer means rushing back to work to pay rent or risk eviction. The financial stability the law provides gives workers the freedom to take care of themselves and their loved ones in life’s most challenging moments, which ultimately improves their health and keeps more people in the labor force.
As the word spreads, more people are applying. As a result of increasing awareness about Paid Family and Medical Leave benefits and operational improvements at the Department of Family and Medical Leave over the past year, approved applications grew from 112,000 in FY22 to 160,000 in FY23, a 40 percent increase. Yet, anecdotally, there are still many workers who miss out on benefits they’ve earned because they don’t know what they don’t know.
The law makes employers responsible for notifying their workers about Paid Family and Medical Leave in writing, in the worker’s primary language. And it provides for financial...
By Ivan Kesic A drone strike on an electrical generator just outside the inner perimeter of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the United Arab Emirates on May 17, 2026, suddenly brought the Persia...