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Committee highlights temporary disability reforms, 'baby bucks' stipend and stronger wage‑theft tools
Summary
Senator Jessica Ramos and others discussed proposals to reform temporary disability benefits, a $1,000 'baby bucks' stipend for low‑income expectant mothers, and measures to strengthen wage‑theft recovery, including liens on employer assets.
Senator Jessica Ramos outlined labor and human services reforms the subcommittee is advancing, including temporary disability insurance (TDI) changes, a new stipend for expectant mothers, and tougher wage‑theft enforcement.
Ramos said the Legislature is again attempting to raise the modest TDI benefit—currently $170 in the statutory example she cited from 1989—to provide better support to workers with temporary disabilities. She also described a proposal to create a first‑in‑the‑state universal basic income for some low‑income expectant mothers, the so‑called "baby bucks" bill, which would provide a $1,000 stipend in the last three months of pregnancy and the first 18 months of the child's life.
Ramos described additional labor measures: enabling injured workers to request hearings with the Workers' Compensation Board, restoring unemployment insurance eligibility for striking workers, and strengthening tools against wage theft, including the ability for workers to place liens on employer assets until wages are paid.
Speakers framed these measures as part of a broader affordability and worker protections package. The subcommittee did not take formal votes; members urged that negotiators include these reforms in the final enacted budget or subsequent legislation.
