The controversial Paid Family and Medical Leave bill is receiving plenty of attention in these early days of the 2025 Legislature. HB11 requires employee contributions of 0.5 percent and employer contributions of 0.4 percent of wages and salaries into the Paid Family and Medical Leave fund that would be authorized by the legislation.
As written, the bill exempts employers with fewer than five employees from paying the employer share of the payroll tax. The bill also includes a provision that waives employers and employees from contributing to the fund if the employer already has a leave program in place that is equal to or more generous than the proposed PFML benefit for an equal or lesser contribution premium by the employee.
The bill enables employees to take the 12-week benefit consecutively or intermittently and in increments of no less than eight hours. Medical leave for oneself or to care for family members is capped at nine weeks for the first two years of the program but can be increased to 12 weeks if the fund can support it and remain solvent. To receive the benefit, the employee would have to pay into the fund for at least a six-month period in the year prior to taking leave.
The bill received a do-pass from the House Health and Human Services Committee on January 28. It will next be heard by the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee, although as of February 5 it had not yet been scheduled.
Read the bill and follow its progress here.
The New Mexico Alcohol Alliance continues to monitor the 2025 session for the introduction of bills that make changes to the collection and rate of liquor excise taxes. Several bills are expected before the bill filing deadline of February 17. After that date, bills may still be introduced under “dummy” bills that have been filed as shells for late-session introductions.