II 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2618 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a credit to employers 

who provide paid family and medical leave. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 16, 2014 

Mrs. FISCHER (for herself and Mr. KING) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide 

a credit to employers who provide paid family and medical leave. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strong Families Act’’. 

5 SEC. 2. EMPLOYER CREDIT FOR PAID FAMILY AND MED6 ICAL LEAVE. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart D of part IV of sub8 chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 

9 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new 

10 section: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 45S. EMPLOYER CREDIT FOR PAID FAMILY AND MED2 ICAL LEAVE. 

3 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of section 38, in 

4 the case of an eligible employer, the paid family and med5 ical leave credit is an amount equal to 25 percent of the 

6 amount of wages paid to qualifying employees during any 

7 period in which such employees are on family and medical 

8 leave. 

9 ‘‘(b) LIMITATION.—The credit allowed under sub10 section (a) with respect to any employee shall not exceed 

11 $4,000 per employee per year. In the case of any employee 

12 who is not paid on an hourly basis, the wages of such em13 ployee shall be prorated to an hourly basis under regula14 tions established by the Secretary, in consultation with the 

15 Secretary of Labor. 

16 ‘‘(c) ELIGIBLE EMPLOYER.—For purposes of this 

17 section— 

18 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘eligible em19 ployer’ means any employer who has in place a pol20 icy that provides— 

21 ‘‘(A) all qualifying full-time employees with 

22 not less than 4 weeks of paid family and med23 ical leave, 

24 ‘‘(B) all qualifying employees who are not 

25 full-time employees with an amount of paid 


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1 family and medical leave that bears the same 

2 ratio to 4 weeks as— 

3 ‘‘(i) the number of hours the employee 

4 is expected to work during any week, bears 

5 to 

6 ‘‘(ii) the number of hours an equiva7 lent qualifying full-time employee is ex8 pected to work during the week, and 

9 ‘‘(C) the maximum amount of time eligible 

10 employers may provide is twelve weeks. 

11 ‘‘(2) SPECIAL RULE FOR CERTAIN EMPLOY12 ERS.— 

13 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—An added employer 

14 shall not be treated as an eligible employer un15 less such employer provides paid family and 

16 medical leave under a policy with a provision 

17 that states that the employer— 

18 ‘‘(i) will not interfere with, restrain, 

19 or deny the exercise of or the attempt to 

20 exercise, any right provided under the pol21 icy, and 

22 ‘‘(ii) will not discharge or in any other 

23 manner discriminate against any individual 

24 for opposing any practice prohibited by the 

25 policy. 


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1 ‘‘(B) ADDED EMPLOYER; ADDED EM2 PLOYEE.—For purposes of this paragraph— 

3 ‘‘(i) ADDED EMPLOYEE.—The term 

4 ‘added employee’ means a qualifying em5 ployee who is not covered by title I of the 

6 Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. 

7 ‘‘(ii) ADDED EMPLOYER.—The term 

8 ‘added employer’ means an eligible em9 ployer (determined without regard to this 

10 paragraph), whether or not covered by that 

11 title I, who offers paid family and medical 

12 leave to added employees. 

13 ‘‘(3) TREATMENT OF STATE-PAID BENEFITS.— 

14 For purposes of paragraph (1), any leave which is 

15 paid by a State or local government shall not be 

16 taken into account in determining the amount of 

17 paid family and medical leave provided by the em18 ployer. 

19 ‘‘(4) NO INFERENCE.—Nothing in this sub20 section shall be construed as subjecting an employer 

21 to any penalty, liability, or other consequence (other 

22 than ineligibility for the credit allowed by reason of 

23 subsection (a)) for failure to comply with the re24 quirements of this subsection. 


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1 ‘‘(d) QUALIFYING EMPLOYEES.—For purposes of 

2 this section, the term ‘qualifying employee’ means any em3 ployee (as defined in section 3(e) of the Fair Labor Stand4 ards Act of 1938) who has been employed by the employer 

5 for one year or more. 

6 ‘‘(e) FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE.—For purposes 

7 of this section, the term ‘family and medical leave’ means 

8 leave for any purpose described under subparagraph (A), 

9 (B), (C), (D), or (E) of paragraph (1), or paragraph (3), 

10 of section 102(a) of the Family and Medical Leave Act 

11 of 1993, whether the leave is provided under that Act or 

12 by a policy of the employer. Such term shall not include 

13 any leave provided as paid vacation leave, personal leave, 

14 or medical or sick leave (within the meaning of those 3 

15 terms under section 102(d)(2) of that Act). 

16 ‘‘(f) WAGES.—For purposes of this section, the term 

17 ‘wages’ has the meaning given such term by subsection 

18 (b) of section 3306 (determined without regard to any dol19 lar limitation contained in such section).’’. 

20 (b) CREDIT PART OF GENERAL BUSINESS CREDIT.— 

21 Section 38(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 

22 amended by striking ‘‘plus’’ at the end of paragraph (35), 

23 by striking the period at the end of paragraph (36) and 

24 inserting ‘‘, plus’’, and by adding at the end the following 

25 new paragraph: 


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1 ‘‘(37) in the case of an eligible employer (as de2 fined in section 45S(c)), the paid family and medical 

3 leave credit determined under section 45S(a).’’. 

4 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

5 for subpart D of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 

6 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by add7 ing at the end the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 45S. Employer credit for paid family and medical leave.’’. 

8 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

9 this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 

10 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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