An effort to expand paid family and medical leave to Nevada’s public and private sector employees was introduced in the Nevada Legislature on Thursday.
Assemblymember Selena La Rue Hatch said she submitted a bill draft request to provide paid family and medical leave for workers in the state.
The legislation would provide parental leave for both childbirth and adoption. It would also include serious medical leave, military leave and “safe leave,” or the leave for victims of domestic violence.
La Rue Hatch, D-Reno, said the legislation came out of speaking with constituents who struggled with taking care of their health or families without the assurance of a paycheck.
“I talked with a graduate student at UNR — she gave birth, and then she had to be back in the lab in two weeks,” she said. “She had these terrible health complications because of it.”
She pointed out how the federal Family and Medical Leave Act only allows for unpaid leave, which can be a non-starter for low-income earners.
No bill language has been introduced yet. La Rue Hatch said she is still working on the details, including the number of weeks and the percentage of pay a worker would receive, but she wants it to be “meaningful” and not a symbolic amount.
Thirteen states and Washington D.C. have paid family leave policies, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Paid family leave has been in discussion at the Nevada Legislature before. A 2023 bill required businesses with 50 or more employees that receive tax exemptions from the state to provide at least 12 weeks of paid family leave to its employees after they have been employed for one year. Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed the bill, but the policy was ultimately included in the special session law that provided funding to the Major League Baseball development plan.
Eligible state employees are entitled to eight weeks of paid family leave under a law passed in the same year.
The proposal may face Republican opposition. Officials with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development – the agency responsible for awarding tax abatements and other economic development incentives — told legislators in February 2024 that Nevada “experienced some headwinds” regarding attracting new businesses to the state because of the policy.
The introduction brought immediate support from progressive and health advocacy groups and labor unions.
“No cancer patient or caregiver should have to worry about losing their paycheck while facing a health crisis,” Adam Zarrin, director of state government affairs for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, said in a statement. “Paid family and medical leave eases that burden, allowing families to focus on treatment and recovery. Every family or caregiver facing a chronic illness in Nevada deserves this support.”
Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.
A recent Review-Journal letter to the editor mischaracterized Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, also known as the Clark County Lands bill. As the former executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, I wholeheartedly support this legislation, so I wanted to set the record straight.
Sen. Cortez Masto has been working on this bill for years in partnership with state and local governments, conservation groups like the NCL and local area tribes. It’s true that the Clark County lands bill would open 25,000 acres to help Las Vegas grow responsibly, while setting aside 2 million acres for conservation. It would also help create more affordable housing throughout the valley while ensuring our treasured public spaces can be preserved for generations to come.
What is not correct is that the money from these land sales would go to the federal government’s coffers. In fact, the opposite is true.
The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act is a landmark bill that identified specific public land for future sale and created a special account ensuring all land sale revenues would come back to Nevada. In accordance with that law 5 percent of revenue from land transfers goes to the state of Nevada for general education purposes, 10 percent goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for needed water infrastructure and 85 percent supports conservation and environmental mitigation projects in Southern Nevada. This legislation has provided billions to Clark County and will continue to benefit generations of Southern Nevadans. Sen. Cortez Masto’s lands bill builds upon the act’s success.
So here’s the good news: All of the money generated from land made available for sale under Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill would be sent to the special account created by the 1998 law. Rather than going to an unaccountable federal government, the proceeds would continue to help kids in Vegas get a better education, bolster outdoor recreation and modernize Southern Nevada’s infrastructure.
I know how important it is that money generated from the sale of public land in Nevada stay in the hands of Nevadans, and so does the senator. That’s why she opposed a Republican effort last year to sell off 200,000 acres of land in Clark County and other areas of the country that would have sent those dollars directly to Washington.
Public land management in Nevada should benefit Nevadans. We should protect sacred cultural sites and beloved recreation spaces, responsibly transfer land for affordable housing when needed and ensure our state has the resources it needs to grow sustainably. I will continue working with Sen. Cortez Masto to advocate for legislation, such as the Clark County lands bill, that puts the needs of Nevadans first.
Paul Selberg writes from Las Vegas.
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Las Vegas High’s baseball team claimed a 3-2 home win over Coronado on Friday.
Las Vegas (9-13-1) next hosts Rancho at 10 a.m. Saturday. Coronado (13-14) hosts Chaparral at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada’s jobless rate is holding steady, but the state is still adding jobs.
A new report from DETR shows February’s unemployment rate unchanged at 5.3 percent, with the labor force growing by nearly 3,800 people.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unemployment rate rises to 5.3% in January
Nevada now has about 1.6 million nonfarm jobs, up 2.2 percent over the past year and 1,500 more jobs than in January.
“This month’s report shows a strengthening labor market,” said David Schmidt, Chief Economist. ”Compared to the report for January, the pace of job gains in the past year increased from 1.9% to 2.2%, building on what was already the fastest pace of job growth in the country. While the unemployment rate remained stable, the labor force participation rate rose to 63.7%, 1.7 percentage points higher than the national level.”
In Las Vegas, employment ticked up by 1,100 jobs in February, about 0.1 percent, and is up more than 25,000 jobs compared to last year.
Reno added 1,000 jobs on the month, while Carson City shed about 200 but is still slightly above where it was a year ago.
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