SSIREP faculty members Barbara E. Silver and Helen Mederer, along with Emilija Djurdjevic, PhD (also of URI) worked with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training to submit a detailed analysis of RI’s TCI program.
“Rhode Island is on the forefront of a burgeoning national movement to enact paid leave legislation across the country, state-by-state. As the third state to pass paid leave legislation, the Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance Program (TCI), signed into law on July 11, 2013, has been available since January 2014. An extension of RI’s Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) program, TCI is fully employee-funded and provides eligible claimants up to four weeks of caregiver leave at a 60% wage replacement rate to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, domestic partner, parent, parent-in-law or grandparent, or to bond with a newborn child, new adopted child or new foster-care child.”
“To assess the launch of the new TCI program as well as its initial impacts for Rhode Island employees…URI researchers from the URI Schmidt Labor Research Center and the College of Business gauged awareness of the TCI program among Rhode Islanders, assessed the TCI application process and who was using the program, investigated its impacts on individuals, and examined potential barriers to TCI usage.”