Yes. An employee continues to be covered under the state or private plan for not more than 12 weeks after termination of employment or until re-employed, whichever comes first.

The qualifying reasons for CT PFML include:

Connecticut Paid Family Leave:

• To bond with a child during the first 12 months after the child’s birth, adoption, or foster care placement;
• To care for a family member’s serious health condition;
• To care for a family member who is or was a member of the armed forces who requires medical care for an illness or injury related to their active service;
• A qualifying exigency arising out of a family member’s active duty or impending call to active duty in the armed forces.

Family violence:

• If personally affected by family violence, which includes, but is not limited to, physical violence, injury, intimidation, sexual violence or abuse, emotional and/or psychological intimidation, harassment, stalking or economic abuse and control.

Connecticut Paid Medical Leave:

• The covered individual’s own serious health condition that incapacitates the individual from performing the essential functions of the individual’s job.

Family member means the covered individual’s:

• Spouse;
• Child (regardless of age; includes biological, adopted or foster child, a stepchild or legal ward, a child to whom the covered individual stands or stood in loco parentis);
• Sibling (biological, adoptive, foster, step-, half-, or sibling-in-law of a covered individual or covered individual’s spouse);
• Grandparent (parent of the covered individual’s parent);
• Grandchild (related by blood, marriage, adoption, or foster care placement);
• Parent (biological, adoptive, foster, step- mother or father or in law of the covered individual and includes a person standing in loco parentis to a child or a person who has legal guardianship or custody of a child); or
• An individual related to the covered individual by blood or affinity whose close relationship with the employee is the equivalent of a familial relationship.

The Average Weekly Wage for benefits and contributions is capped at the Social Security Maximum of $168,600 for 2024 and is updated annually.

Connecticut doesn’t use a “State Average Weekly Wage,” but rather uses Connecticut’s minimum wage in the benefit calculation, as shown above in the plan details. The first tier in the benefit calculation provides 95% income replacement of an individual’s earnings up to 40 times Connecticut’s minimum wage.

Under the state plan, benefit year is defined as the 12-month period beginning the first week that CT PFML benefits commence for the covered individual. The 12-month period is determined based on a rolling 12-month period measured backward from the employee’s first day of leave. Symetra standardly applies this same method for our private CT PFML policies, however, our filing includes flexibility for other leave-year calculation methods.

No. There is no relapse period for leaves under this plan.

No. Payment to the employer is not allowed.

Yes, leave is allowed on an Intermittent or reduced leave schedule. An employer may require that intermittent leave be taken in increments consistent with the established policy that the employer uses to account for use of other forms of leave; provided, however, that the minimum designated time period cannot be in increments less than 15 minutes nor more than 60 minutes. Paid family and medical leave benefits associated with intermittent leave may not be paid until the covered individual has at least 8 hours of accumulated leave time unless more than 14 days has lapsed since the initial taking of such leave. Payments for such leaves may not be issued on less than a bi-weekly or semi-monthly basis.

• Intermittent or reduced leave for bonding requires employer agreement with the schedule;
• Intermittent or reduced leave for a serious health condition (whether the covered individual’s or family member’s) is allowed if medically necessary;
• Intermittent or reduced leave is allowed, as needed, for qualifying exigencies or family violence.

• The benefit will be prorated if less than a full week of leave is taken.
• A covered individual who takes leave on an intermittent leave or reduced leave basis will receive a CT PFML benefit, including maximum CT PFML benefit, that is reduced in direct proportion to the intermittent leave usage or reduced leave schedule. A proportionate reduction will also be taken to the covered individual’s available allotment of leave under the Maximum Duration of Benefits.

• No. CT PFML leave does not provide job protection, but it does include non-retaliation provisions.
• Leave taken under CT PFML may run concurrently with leave taken under other applicable state and federal leaves, including but not limited to the federal FMLA, Connecticut Crime Victims, Connecticut Family Violence, Connecticut FMLA, Connecticut Military Family, Connecticut Pregnancy Disability and Connecticut Reserves or National Guard Leave when the leave is for a qualified reason under these acts.

Accrued paid leave is defined as leave earned by or otherwise provided to a covered individual pursuant to a benefit plan or policy offered by an employer, including, but not limited to, sick leave, annual leave, vacation leave, personal leave, or paid time off.

The employer gets to choose whether covered individuals are required to use their accrued paid leave prior to or while otherwise eligible to receive CT PFML benefits. If the employer requires use of any accrued paid leave, a covered individual who is taking leave pursuant to the CT FMLA is able to retain at least two weeks of such paid time off.

If a covered individual utilizes accrued paid leave while otherwise eligible to receive CT PFML benefits, one of the following will apply depending on the amount of accrued paid leave taken:

• If the accrued paid leave equals or exceeds the amount of the covered individual’s base weekly earnings, no CT PFML benefit will be payable. In this case, use of accrued paid leave will not count toward the maximum allotment of leave allowed under the maximum leave duration.
• If the accrued paid leave is less than the covered individual’s base weekly earnings, the CT PFML Benefit will be reduced by any accrued paid leave received but only to the extent that the aggregate sum of the accrued paid leave and the CT PFML Benefit exceeds the covered individual’s base weekly earnings.
• If the CT PFML Benefit after this 100% backdoor offset with any accrued paid leave is zero, no CT PFML benefit is payable and the period when such accrued paid leave is used will not count toward the maximum leave duration.
• If the CT PFML benefit after the 100% backdoor offset with any accrued paid leave is greater than zero, the use of such accrued paid leave will run concurrently with and count toward the maximum leave duration while weekly benefit amounts are payable.

No. Connecticut is unique in that it requires that CT PFML claims be paid on a “clean slate” basis if there is a change in the plan from private to state , state to private, or private to private. Historical claims payment information is not allowed to be carried over from one administrator to another.

• Connecticut’s private plan must be filed with and approved IN ADVANCE by the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority (Authority); Symetra can help you with any questions you may have on the exemption process and provide you with the documentation you need to complete the filing.
• NOTE: The CT PFML law requires that a majority of all employees working in Connecticut vote to approve the private plan prior to the employer applying to the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority for an exemption. Two weeks prior to holding the employee vote, provide a copy of the CT PFML specimen policy to all employees working in Connecticut. You can only proceed with a private plan exemption filing if you receive approval of 50% + 1 of eligible employees.
• Once you receive majority approval of the private plan from Connecticut employees, log into the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority portal at ctpaidleave.org, register, complete the application and attestation, and attach any documentation required to support your request for exemption. For fully insured plans, you will be required to provide the CT PFML policy AND a copy of the Plain Language statement provided by Symetra.
• The private plan will be effective on first day of the calendar quarter following approval (although there may be some leeway if moving from a private plan to a private plan)
• The private plan must be equal to or better than the state plan, with no greater burden or hardship to the employee. The employee cannot be required to pay more for the private plan than they would have paid under the state plan and the employer is required for any excess.
• An insured plan must be issued through an insurer like Symetra that has an approved CT PFML insurance policy filed with the Connecticut Division of Insurance.
• A self-funded private plan’s exemption filing with the Authority also requires a surety bond that runs to the state.
• Once finalized, the exemption will be valid for a period of three years, unless there is a change in carriers or a material change to the plan. Employers are responsible for filing all exemptions and exemption renewals with the Authority.

Please click the following link for an Authority summary of the requirements to apply for a private plan: Apply for a private plan | Private Plan Requirements (ctpaidleave.org) and How to Apply for a private plan. You may also refer to Symetra’s CT PFML Employee Vote Requirements brochure and our step-by-step instructions for filing for an exemption for CT PFML under the Marketing material section, below, for more information.

The CT PFML Authority does not require any special reporting for the state plan.

Employers with private plans are required to provide annual reports to the Authority via their Connecticut Paid Leave account at ctpaidleave.org. Such reporting requirements include, but are not limited to, annual information on the following:

• Qualifying reasons for the CT PFML leave;
• De-identified demographic information of claimants, including gender, age, town of residence, and income level;
• Total number of claims approved and claims denied; and
• Reasons for any denials.

The Authority has templates for use in providing such data, and Symetra will work with you to provide you with claimant data. Each year, the Authority will collect and aggregate such information and will report out the result for the prior calendar year on or before July 1.