Summary

On November 3, 2021, the House Rules Committee released text of a modified version of H.R. 5376, commonly referred to as the Build Back Better Act (BBBA). Title XIII, Subtitle A, of the act (titled “Universal Comprehensive Paid Leave”) proposes a new federal cash benefit for eligible individuals engaged in certain types of family and medical caregiving. The November 3 text modifies a similar paid leave benefit program proposed in an earlier version of H.R. 5376 that was introduced on September 27, 2021. This report describes the weekly benefit formula for qualified caregiving as included in the November 3, 2021, version of the BBBA. The weekly benefit formula has a progressive structure (i.e., it is designed to replace a larger share of earnings for individuals with lower earnings and a smaller share of earnings for those with higher earnings). For 2024, the benefit formula applies separate (and diminishing) replacement rates for workers with average annual earnings between $2,000 and $15,080; between $15,081 and $34,248; and between $34,249 and $62,000. The portion of an individual’s annual earnings that are above $62,000 are not included in the weekly benefit calculation. Workers with less than $2,000 in average annual earnings are not eligible for the benefit. After calendar year 2024, the bend points of the specified amounts would increase annually by the growth in the national average wage index or would remain at the previous year’s level if the average wage index does not increase. To gain insights into how weekly benefit amounts might vary across workers residing in different states, the report presents the state-level distribution of adult workers in 2019 across the earnings groups identified in the paid leave benefit formula proposed in the November 3 version of the BBBA. The shares of workers with average annual earnings between $2,000 and $15,080 ranged from 1.9% to 9.4%, whereas the shares with average annual earnings above $62,000 (i.e., who would qualify for the highest weekly benefit rate) range from 21.8% to 64.5%. In addition to state-level differences in the many factors that influence workers’ need for and use of family and medical leave (e.g., age, health status, fertility rates, access to job protection during periods of leave), these differences in earnings across states may lead to different average paid leave benefit amounts across states. Finally, the report presents state-level median annual earnings estimates for 2019 and calculates the weekly benefit rate at those median earnings levels. Among full-time, full-year adult workers, median earnings in 2019 ranged from $39,000 to $80,000, with corresponding proposed weekly benefit rates estimated at those median earnings levels ranging from $580 to $814.

What this is

The Congressional Research Service is a nonpartisan policy and legal analysis arm of the Library of Congress. CRS reports are written for members of Congress and their staff, not the public — but they’re made available openly through Congress.gov.