Massachusetts PFML Update: Benefit and Contribution Rate Updates And SJC Confirms Employers Are Not Required To Continue Accrual Of Certain Benefits During PFML

As part of its annual exercise, the Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave (DFML) announced an increase to the maximum weekly Massachusetts Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) benefit, effective January 1, 2025, while contribution rates from employers and employees that fund the public program will remain the same. Additionally, on an issue of first impression, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently held that an employer does not need to allow employees to accrue certain benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and length-of-service credit during PFML.

DFML Increases Weekly Benefit Amount for 2025 and Maintains 2024 Contribution Rates

Weekly Benefit Amount: During 2025, the maximum weekly PFML benefit which eligible employees may receive will be $1,170.64 per week, an increase from the 2024 maximum of $1,149.90 per week.

Contribution Rates: For 2025, the overall PFML contribution rate will remain at 0.88% of eligible employee wages up to the social security taxable maximum for employers with 25 or more covered individuals. The PFML contribution rate for smaller employers – fewer than 25 covered individuals – will also remain at 0.46%.

See our 2024 PFML rate and contribution Legal Update for additional details on how contributions are apportioned between employers and employees.

As a refresher, employers with a private or self-insured plan that has been approved by the DFML do not have to make PFML contributions to the Commonwealth. But, such employers will need to adjust their private plan to reflect the new maximum weekly benefit amount. Any required employee contributions to fund a private plan may not exceed the current rates set by the DFML.

Employers should provide notice of this change to their employees. The DFML has not yet updated the posting and notices for 2025. We will be monitoring the DFML website and will let employers know when these updated documents are available.  

Employers Are Not Required To Continue Accrual Of Certain Benefits During PFML

In Bodge v. Commonwealth, the plaintiff State Troopers sought to take PFML in connection with the birth of a child. Under the employer’s policy, taking PFML resulted in a pause in accrual of vacation, sick time, and length-of-service credit, as well as a loss of seniority.[1] Plaintiffs claimed that the denial of their right to accrue such benefits while on PFML violated the statute.

The Superior Court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, holding that the PFML Act did not require the accrual of certain benefits during leave. The Court, however, stayed the case to allow the Appeals Court to review this question. The SJC stepped in and transferred the case to itself on its own initiative.

The Holding

The SJC held that the plain language of the PFML Act did not require employees’ benefits to continue accruing while on PFML. Instead, the statute simply requires employers to return employees to the same or an equivalent position with the same status, pay, employment benefits, length-of-service credit, and seniority as they held as of the date their leave began. The SJC noted that if the Legislature had intended for benefits to continue to accrue, they would have specifically provided for it as they had with the employer’s obligation to maintain employer-provided health insurance benefits during leave (at the same level and under the same conditions as if the employee had continued working).

The SJC also concluded that although the PFML Act prevents employees from suffering a negative change to their employment benefits while on leave, the temporary pausing of benefit accrual is not a negative change to an employee’s benefits.

Tread Carefully

The SJC’s decision provides welcomed clarity, as it confirms the interpretation of this provision in the PFML Act and its regulations that most management-side counsel and the DFML have applied since the regulations were issued. However, multi-state employers or those with unionized workforces should be careful to review other applicable state leave laws or governing language in collective bargaining agreements, which may differ on the right to accrue paid time off benefits while on leave.

Please reach out to one of the authors or your Seyfarth attorney with any questions.

 

[1] The Court’s decision did not consider the “loss of seniority” provision of the policy because that provision had been discontinued. The decision addressed only whether the PFML Act requires employers to continue accrual of vacation, sick time, and length-of-service credit during PFML.