Lawmakers said Monday they're adamant about changing state law next session to increase New York's decades-old cap of its disability benefits for employees who sustain non-work-related injuries.

Workers in New York who need short-term disability benefits receive a maximum of $170 per week, or the same payments employees have received since the program was implemented in 1989.

Lawmakers reintroduced a new version of legislation Monday to gradually increase that benefit over several years, or up to 67% of a worker's wages in 2029.

"We all know, everyone who lives in New York, in all parts of the state of New York, no one can survive on $170 per week," Assembly Labor Committee chair LaToya Joyner said Monday. 

Joyner says the bill, nicknamed the Equity in Leave Act, is a top legislative priority for 2024. If it becomes law next year, the benefit would increase gradually starting in 2026 before indexing it to inflation to secure future increases tied to the cost of living.

Women file nearly 70% of the state's disability claims, and about 30% are pregnancy-related, according to ShelterPoint Life Insurance Company.

"...People need money to pay their bills, keep a roof over their head, food on their tables, and $170 is just not going to cut it," Joyner said.

The assemblywoman sponsors the bill, and says the low cap has led to a short-term disability program in New York that workers underutilize. 

Lawmakers argue the disability benefit is out of step with New York's other paid leave programs, such as unemployment insurance, workers compensation and New York's Paid Family Leave program enacted in 2018. Officials similarly expanded the Paid Family Leave program and minimum wage increases over several years to help businesses adjust to the changes.

New York has the lowest rate of the 12 U.S. states that offer a short-term disability program, Joyner said. New York lags behind states like New Jersey and Rhode Island that offer up to $900 per week in short-term disability payments.

"Right now, if a doctor says, 'Hey, you have an illness, you need to stay home and take care of yourself,' many people are not going to stay home and take care of themselves," she said.

Senate sponsor Jeremy Cooney says the benefit must be increased as soon as possible to allow New Yorkers to maintain their income and keep up with inflation if they're forced to be out of the office.

"This is long overdue ...This number needs to be updated," he said Monday. "Really, what we're trying to do in context of recent legal changes to Paid Family Leave, to workers comp, we want to modernize and bring everyone up."

Legislation to increase the state's maximum weekly disability payments has been proposed for the last few years, but has not cleared either house of the Legislature.

Lawmakers say they've discussed the change with Hochul's office, and hope she will include the needed change in her executive budget to be released Jan. 16. But they added Monday increasing the cap will be a priority of the Legislature's regardless if it makes the governor's spending plan.

"Sometimes, our workers need to be healed, need to have time outside of the workplace and when they do that, we should not punish individuals for one type of disability over another," the senator said. 

Lawmakers expect small businesses to pose the greatest pushback to the proposed increase, and that they'll argue businesses cannot foot the bill for higher disability benefits. Joyner said lawmakers will negotiate the details in several discussions this session and how much of the tab employers and employees will share. 

"This is the right thing to do from a workforce side and the economic development side," Cooney said. "...This is a bill that's been a long time coming. This is the big push that we're gonna make. I'm getting this bill across the finish line really, because, we just can't wait."