H.R. 5390: FAMILY Act

The bill would create a new Office of Paid Family and Medical Leave inside the Social Security Administration. That office would process applications, determine eligibility, and cut checks — the same way SSA handles retirement and disability benefits today.

The benefit formula works on a sliding scale favoring lower earners. For the first $1,257 of your average monthly earnings, you'd get back 85%. The next tier (up to $3,500) pays 69%. Earnings up to $6,200 pay 50%. The floor is $580 per month; the ceiling is $4,000. Both amounts index to wages after the first year.

To qualify, you need at least $2,000 in wages or self-employment income over the prior two years. That's a low bar by design — it pulls in part-time workers, gig workers, and people who've recently entered the workforce. Self-employed workers qualify on the same terms.

The covered reasons for leave go well beyond the traditional newborn-and-surgery list. The bill covers birth or adoption of a child, your own serious illness, caring for a sick family member, and — notably — leave connected to domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or sex trafficking. That last category includes time for counseling, relocation, legal proceedings, medical treatment, and changing schools or childcare.

The definition of "family" is unusually broad. Spouses, domestic partners recognized by any state, children of any age, parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, in-laws, and anyone "related by blood or affinity whose association is equivalent to a family relationship." That language is designed to cover the way people actually live — not just nuclear family structures.

Your total leave in a 12-month benefit period is capped at 12 times your regular weekly hours. If you work 40 hours a week, that's 480 hours — roughly 12 weeks of full-time leave. Part-time workers get proportionally less. Any month where you log fewer than 4 caregiving hours pays nothing.

The bill includes job protection teeth. Your employer must restore you to the same or equivalent position with the same pay, benefits, and terms. They must maintain your health insurance during leave. And if your employer takes any adverse action against you within 12 months of your leave, the bill creates a rebuttable presumption of retaliation — meaning the employer has to prove the action wasn't payback.