A closer look at what July brought
New state average weekly wage figures. The state average weekly wage, or SAWW, is the number that underlies much of how PFML benefits work. It sets weekly benefit amounts and maximums, and in some jurisdictions, it factors into eligibility. Colorado, the District of Columbia, and Oregon are among the jurisdictions that adjusted their figures effective July 1. When the SAWW moves, benefit calculations, payroll systems, and any offsets you apply for employer-provided benefits move with it.
New Jersey's Family Leave Act amendments. Effective July 17, 2026, the NJFLA extends coverage to smaller employers and lowers the eligibility requirements employees must meet, bringing a new set of employers into the law that did not previously apply to them. The amendments also extend job protection to employees receiving temporary disability insurance (TDI) and family leave insurance (FLI) benefits. Wage replacement and job protection are separate things, and New Jersey employees have not always had both. Connecting them changes how these leaves are managed.
Virginia's timeline. Virginia's paid sick leave law takes effect July 1, 2027, applying first to employers with 50 or more employees and phasing in smaller employers over subsequent years. Virginia's paid family leave program follows a longer runway, with contributions beginning April 1, 2028, and benefits available December 1, 2028, offering up to 12 weeks of paid leave with job protection. Nothing is explicitly required of employers yet, but preparation in advance of both 2028 dates will be critical.
Three very different kinds of change, arriving at once. One is a routine annual adjustment. One expands who is covered and what protections they are owed. One puts dates on the calendar years out.
Why monitoring has to be continuous
Change in the PFML and PSL space does not arrive on a schedule you set. It arrives on schedules set by each jurisdiction you operate in, and those schedules often do not align.
An employer in eight jurisdictions is not tracking one set of rules with minor variations. It is tracking eight sets of rules that cover similar ground, each with its own effective dates, its own thresholds, and its own update cycle. A review done once a year is accurate on the day it happens and can drift out of date by the next month or quarter.
New laws keep arriving as well. Coverage expands, obligations grow, and each new jurisdiction tends to build on what came before rather than copy it. The direction of travel is steady, even when the details are not.
Keeping current is less about avoiding penalties than about running leave programs that work. Employees who are told the wrong benefit amount, or who are not offered the protection they are entitled to, notice. So do the administrators trying to reconcile it afterward.
Building a monitoring habit
Continuous monitoring is a set of routines. A few that tend to work:
Give it an owner. Assign responsibility in your HR or compliance team for tracking PFML and PSL changes, with particular attention to the dates when updates cluster.
Pick your sources and check them consistently. No single source covers every jurisdiction, so most leave teams build a short list of places they check on a schedule:
- State program websites. Where the authoritative figures live. Colorado's FAMLI division, Oregon Paid Leave, DC's Paid Family Leave program, and New Jersey's Department of Labor and Workforce Development all post updates directly.
- Industry associations. Groups like DMEC and SHRM often surface changes early, along with practical discussion of how other employers are handling them.
- Compliance publications and blogs. Several law firms, carriers, and consultancies publish regular summaries. Our Connecting with Compliance blog is one, and our monthly statutory updates series covers the changes in detail.
Update policies and systems promptly. Ensure that changes to eligibility, benefits, contribution rates, and any other impacted aspects of the benefits or protections are reflected in your leave policies, payroll systems, employee communications, etc., without delay.
Educate and communicate. Keep managers and employees informed about their rights and responsibilities under evolving laws to improve the overall experience, reduce confusion, and mitigate risk.
Know when to ask. Some changes are straightforward. Others turn on how a new state requirement interacts with existing FMLA or ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) obligations, and those are worth discussing with your employment counsel or someone who regularly works in this area.
Making it routine
Employers who treat leave compliance as a standing habit rather than a periodic scramble tend to fare better, not just on the compliance side but on the employee experience side. Programs administered accurately are programs employees trust.
That is really the case for continuous monitoring. Not that the stakes are high in any single instance, but that the changes are small, frequent, and easy to miss, and the only reliable way to catch small things is to keep looking.
July was a reminder that the updates keep coming. January will be another one. And there will likely be some in between. If you have questions about any of the changes covered here or want to talk through what they mean for your organization, contact our absence, disability, and life team. We are always glad to help you think through where your leave programs stand and what is coming next.
