CALIFORNIA — On July 1, Senate Bill 83 took into effect, which expanded the benefit of paid family leave from six weeks to eight weeks in California.

The previous law stated that individuals who take time off work to care for an ill family member or new child would receive partial pay.

This new law will “instead provide for wage replacement benefits for up to eight weeks to workers who take time off work to care for a seriously ill family member or to bond with a minor child within one year of birth or placement, as specified.”

In 2004, California became the first state to give private-sector workers six weeks off with partial pay. Other states that implemented a paid family program after CA include New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Washington, and the District of Columbia.

When paid family leave was first established in California, workers weren’t guaranteed their jobs back after they took their paid leave, leading to millions being fired, according to Calmatters.

Last week, Newson stated, “I believe that our nation, our state is unbalanced in terms of caring for our workforce and caring for families. So often it’s the case that people are not attending to the needs of their family members, which is impacting society in a very deep way. There’s no substitute for caregiving, for outstanding parenting.”

This new legislation passes a new law that ensure workers the right to come back to their job after taking leave.