This spring, Colorado expanded the state’s paid family and medical leave program (the FAMLI Act, which our Colorado Office helped write and pass) to include an additional 12 weeks of paid leave for parents with a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit. Governor Polis signed the bill into law on Friday, May 30th, and Colorado workers with a child in the NICU will be able to take additional leave under the expansion beginning on or after January 1, 2026.
Time off to welcome a new child and recover from childbirth is a critical paid leave provision. For parents with children in the NICU, additional time off work to remain present can be a lifeline during a stressful time. The last thing parents navigating newborns’ health complications should have to worry about is rushing back to work to maintain their economic security.
The CO Legislature’s expansion exemplifies how established paid leave programs can be built upon to better meet the needs of families. We are heartened to see states taking initiative to update, expand and modernize their paid leave programs. For example, Washington State recently expanded its paid family and medical leave program to expand job protection and health care continuation. Another example is Tennessee, which recently became the first Southern state to expand its public sector paid leave policy beyond parental leave to cover end-of-life care.
Colorado became the first (and thus far only) state to enact a paid family and medical leave program via ballot initiative in November 2020. The overwhelming support for the law amongst the Coloradans who directly approved the policy shows the broad and bipartisan popularity of these essential policies amongst voters nationwide, and since it took effect in 2024, hundreds of thousands of Coloradans have utilized the CO FAMLI Act’s benefits and received hundreds of millions of dollars during life’s most important moments.
The Centennial State has paved the way for strong worker’s rights protections by modeling how these policies can continually evolve and help uplift families and businesses in the state. We commend Colorado lawmakers for continuing to model the kind of strong, inclusive, comprehensive state paid family and medical leave program we hope to see enacted across the country.