131st MAINE LEGISLATURE
		LD 999		LR 2240(02)
	An Act to Support Family Caregivers by Expanding Family Medical Leave
	Fiscal Note for Bill as Amended by Committee Amendment " "
	Committee: Labor and Housing
	Fiscal Note Required: Yes
Fiscal Note
Current biennium cost increase - All Funds
Fiscal Detail and Notes
	This bill adds grandparents and great-grandparents with a serious health condition to the list of persons related to an employee for whom family medical leave may be taken. In 2022, state employees used 47,000 hours of family medical leave, of which 14,000 hours were unpaid.  Additional costs to state agencies and departments are anticipated but will be limited by the narrow expansion of the list of persons for whom leave may be taken and further limited to the subset instances in which the employee's absence for family medical leave necessitates hiring a temporary employee or moving an existing employee to a higher rate of pay for some or all of the hours of the leave. Given uncertainties around the lack of data on the extent to which family medical leave hours may increase, the portion of those hours that will require someone else to be paid and at what rate of pay, no estimate is made at this time of the amount of the cost increase.