Oregon Paid Leave Law to Be Effective in September 2023

Oregon’s new paid leave program is slated to take effect in September 2023. Under the new law, employees in Oregon that earned at least $1,000 in the prior year may qualify for up to 12 weeks of paid family, medical, or safe leave. The law will cover leaves based on events such as the birth or adoption of a child, a serious illness of yours or a loved one, or sexual assault, domestic violence, harassment, or stalking. The program will expand leave benefits to some employee groups who are not currently eligible for short-term disability or parental leave programs at Lewis & Clark, and is to be funded by a new payroll tax split between the employer and employees.

Lewis & Clark already provides generous leave policies for many employee groups. We are working to align our existing leave policies with the new state-mandated program prior to September 1. In addition, we have notified the state that we intend to opt-out of the state-administered system, and will instead administer this leave program separate from the Oregon Employment Department.

Because we are opting out of the state system, we are not implementing the new payroll tax beginning in January, as other employers in Oregon are required to do. (The new 1% payroll tax for Paid Leave Oregon is to be split 0.6% from employees and 0.4% from employers.) We don’t currently anticipate implementing the new payroll tax prior to September 1. We will let you know once we have more information about implementation of this new leave program, or if these plans change.

More information about Paid Leave Oregon can be found at this link. Please contract Human Resources with questions.