New Milliman Report on New Mexico Paid Family and Medical Leave Fund Shows Positive Results, Says Southwest Women’s Law Center
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 24, 2025
Contact: Katie Hoeppner at katie@neonvine.us
ALBUQUERQUE, NM – The Southwest Women’s Law Center (SWLC) released the findings of a new Milliman analysis today, showing a state-run paid family and medical leave program (PFML) in New Mexico would be sustainable and financially sound under certain conditions and assumptions.
Milliman ran three projections – all based on a full 12 weeks of paid leave across all eligible leave categories and an inclusive definition of family — using slightly different formulas regarding contribution rate caps. Importantly, when calculating projections based on 0.1% cap on both annual increases and decreases in contribution rates as denoted in “Projection 3,” the fund would remain remarkably stable. HB 11, the 2025 version of the bill pre-filed on January 8, incorporates a 0.1% cap on increases and decreases, an inclusive definition of family, up to 12 weeks of leave for parental leave, and 9 weeks for other eligible leave categories.
“This analysis clearly shows the fund would be sustainable even if the bill included even more robust leave time for qualifying events than what’s currently in HB 11,” said Tracy McDaniel, policy director at the Southwest Women’s Law Center. “We’ve constantly sought to improve the bill, incorporating feedback from stakeholders over the years. And we’re excited to see that one of the changes sponsors made, incorporating both a cap on increases and decreases, has made the fund even more stable.”
Under Projection 3, the contribution rate is estimated to briefly decrease from 0.90% in 2028 to 0.60% in 2031, before increasing to 0.80% in 2033 and leveling out at around 0.90% after 2034. With these estimated contribution rates, the fund would maintain a positive balance of 30% funding in 2035 and beyond.
As part of its analysis, Milliman used assumptions provided by SWLC for start-up costs of $36.5 million, and assumptions for ongoing administrative expenses equal to 5% of total expenditures in every year based on the expense ratios of five states with PFML programs. California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington all have expense ratios of approximately 5%, while Connecticut, which uses a third-party administrator, spends approximately 12% of total expenditures.
Milliman’s analysis is the third to be completed on paid family and medical leave in New Mexico. In recent years, the Department of Labor and UNM Bureau of Business and Economic Research also conducted independent analyses of New Mexico’s bill and both determined that the fund will remain sustainable.
“After three separate independent analyses, we are more confident than ever that the paid family and medical leave fund will be solvent and sustainable,” said Terrelene Massey, executive director of the Southwest Women’s Law Center. “What isn’t sustainable is expecting hard working New Mexicans to continue to cobble together sick leave and vacation time, or worse, to forgo a paycheck, when these big life moments happen. We hope with this third analysis, lawmakers will support and pass HB 11.”
The full Milliman report is available here.
The Milliman report is an independent analysis commissioned by the Southwest Women’s Law Center. Milliman is one of the world’s largest providers of actuarial analyses.