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Advocates tell committee Vermont efers to a voluntary, insurer-led model that has so far reached only a fraction of private workers
Summary
Advocates and a witness with lived experience told the House Committee on General and Housing that the voluntary, employer-purchase approach to paid family and medical leave has produced limited private-sector uptake (tens of employers and 67 individual purchasers) and can leave low-income workers without usable benefits.
Advocates for universal paid leave told the House Committee on General and Housing on April 16 that Vermont pproached paid family and medical leave as a voluntary, insurer-sold product and the results so far leave many workers unprotected.
Gretchen Elias of the Vermont Paid Leave Coalition told lawmakers the voluntary model has had limited private-sector impact: she cited committee testimony and her submitted materials showing only about 63 private employers offering paid leave out of roughly 17,000 private-sector employers, and she highlighted that Hartford reported 283 employer quotes with about 28% of those quotes purchased. Elias said only 67 individual Vermonters…
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