Tracking Federal COVID-19 Laws Affecting Employee Benefits, Jobs

Summary

Like previously enacted COVID-19 aid bills, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) (Pub. L. No. 117-2) — enacted March 11, 2021 — contains a broad array of employee benefit and workplace provisions, along with many other provisions to help Americans through the pandemic. Healthcare and leave items include fully subsidized COBRA coverage, more generous tax benefits for employer-provided dependent care assistance, enhanced tax credits for employers providing emergency paid sick and family leave and increased Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. The law also encourages Medicaid expansion in states that have not already done so by increasing the base federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) by five percentage points for two years and dramatically improves the child tax credit. Other provisions include substantial pension funding relief for single employer plans and extensive multiemployer pension plan reforms, as well as an extension of the expanded employee retention tax credit.