Colorado workers will be entitled to an additional 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave starting next year if they have a child being treated in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law amending the state’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program on May 30. Colorado is the first state to offer extended leave to parents with babies in the NICU.

NICU parents can receive double the amount of leave. Nearly all employees in Colorado are already entitled to receive up to 12 weeks of leave to bond with a new child. The state’s paid family leave law went into effect last year after it was passed via ballot initiative in 2020. Mothers, fathers, and individuals acting as the parent to a child (“in loco parentis”) can apply for the benefit.

Starting Jan. 1, 2026, workers with children in the NICU may receive double the amount of leave, a total of 24 weeks. The additional 12 weeks of leave should be taken for the duration of time a child is receiving treatment in the NICU, according to the bill’s text.

For more on Colorado’s novel paid family leave benefit, keep reading here.—CV

The Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services last week that cleared the way for a reverse discrimination lawsuit to move forward under Title VII of the Civil Right Act. But as one employment lawyer told HR Brew, the ruling probably won’t affect future HR decisions in any meaningful way.

Marlean Ames, a straight woman, sued her employer of 20 years in 2020, claiming so-called reverse discrimination and that she had been passed over for jobs because of her sexual orientation in favor of a lesbian woman and gay man.

On June 5, the Supreme Court struck down the background circumstances rule, which said that a person in the majority needs to meet a different burden of proof than those in minority populations, as HR Brew previously reported.

“Congress left no room for courts to impose special requirements on majority-group plaintiffs alone,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote in the Court’s opinion.

For more on the Supreme Court’s reverse discrimination ruling and its ramifications, keep reading here.—KP

Moms First, an advocacy organization, aims to “fight for the structural changes moms need and deserve,” like paid family leave and childcare benefits.

The group, founded by Girls Who Code CEO and lawyer Reshma Saujani, hosted an inaugural summit to support the fight for those changes last year. But this year, they decided to place the focus on men, with a conference titled The Future of Fatherhood that was held in New York City on June 5.

Turning the focus to fathers was partly a pragmatic decision, said Moms First’s Chief Operating Officer Molly Day. “We’re not going to win the structural changes we need without men at the table. We need them voting. We need them in positions of power, whether it’s the workplace or on Capitol Hill,” she said.

Thus far this year, progress on family-friendly benefits looks more promising in the workplace than it does in Washington.

For a look at concrete steps some employers are taking with family-friendly policies, keep reading here.—CV