Gov. Jared Polis has signed a bill providing 12 additional weeks of paid family leave for parents with infants in intensive care units.

Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program, passed through a ballot initiative in 2020, allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a newborn baby, a family member with a serious health condition or their own health condition. Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia have mandatory family leave programs, while another 24 states and jurisdictions have voluntary options.

Extremely premature babies born between 24 to 25 weeks of gestational age spend an average of over 100 days in the hospital, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Senate Bill 144 — sponsored by Sens. Faith Winter, D-Westminster, and Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village, and Reps. Jenny Willford, D-Nortglenn, and Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins — also cuts the FAMLI payroll tax from 0.9% of wages per employee to 0.88% and charges the Division of Family and Medical Leave Insurance to set new premiums each year, not to exceed 1.2% of an employee’s wages. 

“Today I proudly signed to SB25-144 to cut the FAMLI payroll tax by just over two percent,” Polis said in a Facebook post over the weekend. “You don’t need to do anything, your FAMLI payroll tax will automatically go down July 1st to .88% (.44% on your payroll, employer pays the other half). This new law lowers the payroll tax rate for everyone and still safeguards the solvency of the family and medical leave fund going forward.”

The issue is personal for Bridges and Zokaie, who both say their children spent time in NICU when they were born.

Jared Make, vice president of A Better Balance, commended the passage of the bill, calling FAMLI a “lifeline” for the more than 160,000 workers who have used it so far.

“Now, the program is poised to be expanded to cover the needs of parents with children in the NICU, who are navigating an incredibly stressful — and often costly — time,” he said. “The last thing new parents of babies in the NICU should be worrying about is losing income or their jobs. An additional 12 weeks of leave will enable NICU parents to be present during this critical time without sacrificing their families’ financial security.”

The bill passed on a party-line vote in both the House and Senate.