HARC CEO Barton Reeves to run CT’s new paid family medical leave program
Photo | Office of Gov. Ned Lamont
HARC CEO and President Andrea Barton Reeves (center) has been named the first chief executive of Connecticut's new paid and family medical leave program.
Andrea Barton Reeves, a well-known Hartford nonprofit executive, will be named the first CEO of the state’s recently established paid family medical leave program, sources familiar with the situation confirmed to HBJ.
Reeves is currently the president & CEO of Harc Inc., a nonprofit that provides services to intellectually disabled clients statewide. She will leave that position to lead the Paid Family Medical Leave Insurance Authority, which held its first meeting in October and is in charge of implementing Connecticut’s newly established paid leave program.
Reeves will remain with Harc until Feb. 27 and begin her new role March 2. Harc said it has already begun a national search for its new leader.
Gov. Ned Lamont previously named Joshua Geballe, commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services, chair the group's 15-member board.
“The paid family and medical leave program is going to provide both workers and businesses in our state with a much-needed boost that will make Connecticut an even stronger place to live, work, do business, and raise a family,” Lamont said Thursday. “Andrea has vast experience leading programs that provide critical services for families and children, and I know that she will bring this passion to her new role to make our paid family and medical leave program a success. I congratulate the board on its excellent choice.”
The paid leave program was and remains a contentious issue in Connecticut, drawing opposition and concern from the business community.
While federal law provides some guarantees that employees won’t lose their jobs when they take medical leave, those guarantees don’t require employers to continue to pay the worker during their absence. Connecticut was the seventh state to beef up those protections by requiring private employers to provide some level of compensation for the birth of a child, caring for a sick loved one and other situations.
Connecticut’s program is believed to offer the richest benefits of any state -- a maximum weekly benefit of $780, which will rise to $900 when the state minimum wage hits $15 an hour five years from now, according to the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA).
Lawmakers gave the board the authority to reduce benefit levels if it determines premiums aren’t sufficient to cover them.
The authority will set the actual level of employee premium contributions, but the law caps it at 0.5 percent of a worker’s earnings.
Connecticut’s program requires no direct financial contribution from employers, which is different than in Massachusetts.
CBIA members said they were concerned about difficulties replacing certain employees for up to six months when they take family or medical leave.
Virtually all Connecticut employers will be required to manage payroll withholdings, which will begin in Jan. 2021. Workers can begin to collect benefits from the program one year after that, according to the law.
Paid leave was one of Lamont’s campaign promises.
A little background
Barton Reeves has been serving as president and CEO of Harc Inc. since 2013. During her tenure, she transformed Harc’s operating model, created new revenue streams, and enhanced technology systems. Barton Reeves has also served as the organization’s vice president of administration and in-house counsel.
Prior to joining Harc, her career included serving as the director of program operations at Lawyers for Children America Inc., and in the insurance industry at Chubb. She has also served as president of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, board chair at the Village for Families and Children, and as board member for several organizations, including the Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance and Leadership Greater Hartford.
Barton Reeves has also been named one of the Hartford Business Journal’s 40 Under Forty and Five New Leaders to Watch.
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