Colorado § 8-13.3-502 - Purposes and findings.

§ 8-13.3-502. Purposes and findings.

The people of the state of Colorado hereby find and declare that:

(1) Workers in Colorado experience a variety of personal and family caregiving obligations, but it can be difficult or impossible to adequately respond to those needs without access to paid leave.

(2) Access to paid family and medical leave insurance helps employers in Colorado by reducing turnover, recruiting workers, and promoting a healthy business climate, while also ensuring that smaller employers can compete with larger employers by providing paid leave benefits to their workers through an affordable insurance program.

(3) Paid family and medical leave insurance will also provide a necessary safety net for all Colorado workers when they have personal or family caregiving needs, including low-income workers living paycheck to paycheck who are disproportionately more likely to lack access to paid leave and least able to afford unpaid leave.

(4) Due to the need to provide paid time off to Colorado workers to address family and medical needs, such as the arrival of a new child, military family needs, and a personal or a family member's serious health condition, including the effects of domestic violence and sexual assault, it is necessary to create a statewide paid family and medical leave insurance enterprise and to authorize the enterprise to:

(a) Collect insurance premiums from employers and employees at rates reasonably calculated to defray the costs of providing the program's leave benefits to workers; and

(b) Receive and expend revenues generated by the premiums and other moneys, issue revenue bonds and other obligations, expend revenues generated by the premiums to pay family and medical leave insurance benefits and associated administrative and program costs, and exercise other powers necessary and appropriate to carry out its purposes.

(5) The fiscal approach of this part 5 has been informed by the experience of other state family and medical leave insurance programs, modeling based on the Colorado workforce, and input from a variety of stakeholders in Colorado.

(6) The creation of a statewide paid family and medical leave insurance enterprise is in the public interest and will promote the health, safety, and welfare of all Coloradans, while also encouraging an entrepreneurial atmosphere and economic growth.

Source: Initiated 2020: Entire part added, Proposition 118, L. 2021, p. 4225, effective upon proclamation of the Governor, December 31, 2020.

Editor's note: This section was originally numbered as 8-13.3-402 in Proposition 118 but was renumbered on revision for ease of location.

ANNOTATION

Because the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Act is not an income tax law and because the premium collected under this section is a fee to fund a specific service and not a tax or surcharge collected to defray general government expenses, the collection of the premium does not violate article X, § 20(8)(a) of the state constitution. Chronos Builders v. Dept. of Labor, 2022 CO 29, 512 P.3d 101.