During today’s meeting of the paid family and medical leave (PFML) advisory committee, the Employment Security Department (ESD) announced that the PFML premium rate for 2024 will be 0.74%. (Employees will be statutorily responsible for 71.43% of the premium and employers will be responsible for 28.57%.)

The family and medical leave insurance (FMLI) account went into deficit several times beginning in 2022. As we described in a policy brief about the problem, the premium rates for the program were initially set too low. This year, the Legislature changed the rate structure so that a three-month reserve for the program is built in. The Legislature also appropriated $200 million from the general fund–state to the FMLI account to seed the reserve. As I wrote in May, at the time ESD estimated that these changes would mean a premium rate of 0.83% in 2024.

At the PFML advisory committee meeting last month, the program’s new actuary provided an estimate of what the rates would be through 2027. The actual rate for 2024 is about what the actuary estimated. Although the rate will decrease next year, the actuary expects it to increase considerably in 2025 and 2026.