BILL ANALYSIS
AB 381
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 381 (Block) - As Amended: April 14, 2009
Policy Committee: Insurance
Vote:10-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes community colleges to elect to provide
state disability insurance (SDI) coverage to permanent,
part-time, or temporary employees that is not contingent upon
coverage of all other academic employees.
FISCAL EFFECT
No direct state fiscal impact. SDI is fully supported by
employee premiums paid through payroll taxes of 1.1% of wages up
to an annual wage ceiling of $90,669. To the extent this bill
results in more community college staff access to SDI, more
payroll taxes will be collected to pay benefits.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of bill. This bill is sponsored by the Faculty
Association of the California Community Colleges (FACCC) to
provide part-time community college faculty with greater
access to SDI benefits. Under current law, cohorts of
community college employees must be treated uniformly for the
purposes of SDI election. Because faculty members often have
sick leave, a sick leave donation bank, or other resources
available to them in the case of wage loss, faculty elects SDI
coverage less often. When full-time faculty fails to elect
coverage, part-time employees are unable to access the
benefit. Therefore, part-time faculty and temporary employees
often have neither SDI coverage nor sick leave options. This
bill disaggregates the election of the SDI benefit to allow
smaller groups of employees to elect the benefit.
AB 381
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2)Disability Coverage . The SDI program provides temporary
benefit payments to workers for non-work-related disabilities.
The tax paid by employees supports both SDI and paid family
leave benefits available under state law since 2004. SDI
benefits are paid to workers for up to a year and up to 55% of
wage replacement when recipients are unable to work due to
illness or injury. The benefits are between $50 and $959 per
week. The average benefit in 2007-08 was $413 per week for
a14-week duration.
Analysis Prepared by : Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081