Nevada lawmaker wants to expand paid family leave

An effort to expand paid family and medical leave to Nevada’s public and private sector employees was introduced in the Nevada Legislature on Thursday.

Assemblymember Selena La Rue Hatch said she submitted a bill draft request to provide paid family and medical leave for workers in the state.

The legislation would provide parental leave for both childbirth and adoption. It would also include serious medical leave, military leave and “safe leave,” or the leave for victims of domestic violence.

La Rue Hatch, D-Reno, said the legislation came out of speaking with constituents who struggled with taking care of their health or families without the assurance of a paycheck.

“I talked with a graduate student at UNR — she gave birth, and then she had to be back in the lab in two weeks,” she said. “She had these terrible health complications because of it.”

She pointed out how the federal Family and Medical Leave Act only allows for unpaid leave, which can be a non-starter for low-income earners.

No bill language has been introduced yet. La Rue Hatch said she is still working on the details, including the number of weeks and the percentage of pay a worker would receive, but she wants it to be “meaningful” and not a symbolic amount.

Thirteen states and Washington D.C. have paid family leave policies, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Paid family leave has been in discussion at the Nevada Legislature before. A 2023 bill required businesses with 50 or more employees that receive tax exemptions from the state to provide at least 12 weeks of paid family leave to its employees after they have been employed for one year. Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed the bill, but the policy was ultimately included in the special session law that provided funding to the Major League Baseball development plan.

Eligible state employees are entitled to eight weeks of paid family leave under a law passed in the same year.

The proposal may face Republican opposition. Officials with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development – the agency responsible for awarding tax abatements and other economic development incentives — told legislators in February 2024 that Nevada “experienced some headwinds” regarding attracting new businesses to the state because of the policy.

The introduction brought immediate support from progressive and health advocacy groups and labor unions.

“No cancer patient or caregiver should have to worry about losing their paycheck while facing a health crisis,” Adam Zarrin, director of state government affairs for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, said in a statement. “Paid family and medical leave eases that burden, allowing families to focus on treatment and recovery. Every family or caregiver facing a chronic illness in Nevada deserves this support.”

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.