California’s newly signed SB 590 expands the state’s Employment Development Department’s (EDD) Paid Family Leave program to include replacement benefits for individuals who take time off of work to care for a seriously ill designated person. Existing EDD Paid Family Leave benefits provide temporary wage replacement benefits for workers who take time off for prescribed purposes, including to care for a seriously ill family member.  

Employers across the state are already familiar with concept of a ‘designated person’ as several years ago the California Family Rights Act was amended to add a ‘designated person’ – a individual with a blood or family-like relationship with the employee – to its statutory definition of family member. Beginning July 1, 2028, the definition of family member under the Paid Family Leave program will be similarly amended to define a ‘designated person’ as “any care recipient related by blood or whose association with the individual is the equivalent of a family relationship.” 

Individual’s requesting family temporary disability insurance benefits for the first time to care for a designated person will be required to identify the designated person and, under penalty of perjury, attest to how the individual is related by blood to the designated person, or how the individual’s association with the designated person is the equivalent of a family relationship. 

Employers can find out more about EDD’s Paid Family Leave program by visiting EDD’s website or its Paid Family Leave portal.