California Expands Paid Family Leave Eligibility to “Designated Persons”

Following California’s 2023 expansion of job-protected, unpaid family medical leave and paid sick and safe time and its 2025 expansion of job-protected, unpaid leave for victims of violence to include use for a “designated person,” Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 590 on October 13, 2025, which broadens eligibility for the state’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) law. 

As a result of the change, PFL wage replacement benefits claims filed on or after July 1, 2028 will be available for employees who take time off work to care for a “designated person” with a serious illness, which the law defines as any care recipient related by blood or whose association with the individual is the equivalent of a family relationship. Employees will have to identify their “designated person” at the time they request benefits and attest under penalty of perjury to either: (1) how the individual is related by blood to the designated person; or (2) how the individual’s association with the designated person is the equivalent of a family relationship.

PFL is a wage replacement benefit program administered by the state (unless an employer has a qualifying voluntary plan) that does not provide a job-protected leave of absence. Currently, PFL benefit eligibility is limited to: (1) bonding leave for new parents, including foster and adoptive parents; (2) family care leave for family members with a serious illness; and (3) military assistance leave for employees taking time off to support military-family members deploying to a foreign country. 

SB 590 follows a familiar trend in California. Below we identify the “designated person” standards under the paid sick and safe time law (Healthy Workplaces Healthy Families Act (HWHFA)), the unpaid victims of violence leave law, the unpaid family medical leave law (California Family Rights Act (CFRA)), and now, the paid family leave law (PFL).

Employers can expect the Employment Development Department (EDD) to provide further guidance ahead of the July 1, 2028 operative date for the PFL changes. In the meantime, employers may want to consider reviewing their leave policies and administration guidelines to understand how SB 590’s changes could affect them.