Short-Term Disability Benefits Under State Laws
A handful of states provide short-term disability benefits programs: California, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Hawaii. Each of these states imposes its own laws for the program, which vary significantly. In general, though, short-term disability benefits provide partial wage replacement to people who need to take time off from work for illnesses or injuries that are not long-term disabilities. Details such as eligibility requirements and the amount and duration of benefits are discussed state by state below.
Outside these states, an employee may get short-term disability insurance through their employer as part of their benefits package. This type of insurance is rarely available to individuals.
California Short-Term Disability Insurance
The California Employment Development Department operates the short-term disability insurance program. An employee is considered disabled when their doctor certifies that they cannot perform their current work. They must have earned at least $300 during the 12 months before the last complete calendar quarter before they filed a claim for these benefits. Payments are generally calculated as 60-70 percent of the employee’s average wage during the quarter of the base period in which their earnings were greatest. A weekly maximum also applies, which changes each year.
Payments are generally available for up to 52 weeks (essentially one year), although benefits for self-employed people are limited to 39 weeks. An employee will not start receiving payments until the eighth day of their disability. They cannot get benefits if they are collecting unemployment benefits or paid family leave benefits, or if they are getting workers’ compensation benefits that are greater than the short-term disability insurance payments to which they would be entitled. An employee also cannot get benefits if they are already getting sick leave from their employer that is equal to their normal wages. Certain other bars apply, such as missing doctor’s appointments that the EDD arranged for the employee.
New York Short-Term Disability Insurance
The New York State Workers’ Compensation Board manages short-term disability insurance in the state. These benefits are generally available to employees who worked or recently worked at least four consecutive weeks before the onset of the disability. However, they cannot get benefits if the disability resulted from a work-related injury or illness, since this would be covered by workers’ compensation.
Short-term disability benefits in New York amount to half of an employee’s average wages over the last eight weeks, subject to a weekly maximum. Unlike workers’ compensation, this insurance does not cover medical treatment for the disability. An employee is paid in two-week increments but will not start receiving payments until they have missed work for eight days. Benefits will last for up to 26 weeks in each 52-week period.
New Jersey Temporary Disability Insurance
The short-term disability benefits program in New Jersey is called temporary disability insurance. To get these benefits, an employee must have worked for 20 calendar weeks with at least $240 in weekly earnings, or must have earned at least $12,000 during the base year. This is the four calendar quarters preceding the last completed calendar quarter before filing for benefits. The disability must arise from an illness or injury that is not related to their job, and they must be receiving medical treatment.
To determine the weekly benefit rate, a claims examiner will divide the employee’s earnings in the base year by the number of base weeks that they worked and then take 85 percent of that amount. A base week is a week in which the employee earned more than $240. A weekly maximum applies, which changes each year. Benefits are limited to 26 weeks, although an employee can get another 26 weeks of benefits if they develop a new condition.
Rhode Island Temporary Disability Insurance
Like New Jersey, Rhode Island refers to its short-term disability insurance program as temporary disability insurance. The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training oversees this program. An employee can get these benefits if they cannot do their normal work and if they earned at least $14,700 in the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the starting date of their claim. If an employee is not eligible based on these earnings, they may be eligible if their earnings during the last four completed calendar quarters before the starting date of their claim meet the threshold. Employees who earned less than the threshold amount still may be able to get benefits if they meet certain other requirements. An employee must have been unable to work for at least seven days before getting these benefits, although they ultimately will get benefits for the first seven days as well.
The weekly benefit rate of an employee is 4.62 percent of the wages that they received in the highest quarter of their base period, which is the period used to determine whether they are eligible based on their wages. Minimum and maximum rates apply. An employee also may be entitled to a dependency allowance if they have dependent children who are under 18 years old or older children who are incapacitated. Benefits are limited to 30 weeks.
Hawaii Temporary Disability Insurance
The Hawaii Disability Compensation Division manages the temporary disability insurance program. An employee can potentially get temporary disability insurance if they have been paid for at least 20 hours of work during each of 14 (not necessarily consecutive) weeks in Hawaii, and they have earned at least $400 during the 52 weeks before the onset of their disability. They must have worked within two weeks before the onset of the disability. Benefits are not available if the disability arose from a job-related injury or illness. A doctor must certify the disability. An employee will not get benefits if they performed paid work on any day during the time of the disability.
In general, an employee will be entitled to 58 percent of their average weekly wage, subject to a cap. Benefits are limited to 26 weeks per year. Sometimes an employer may provide its own temporary disability insurance, which must offer benefits that are better than the basic requirements under state law.
