This virtual event gives small business owners the chance to hear directly from procurement officers about opportunities to work with them.
05/29/2025
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Virtual
Join us for an exclusive networking event at the Museum of Fine Arts and enjoy self-guided tours of John Wilson and Van Gogh, showcasing the deep bond of family, friendship, and community.
06/05/2025
5:30pm - 8:30pm
Museum of Fine Arts
The Transportation First Series offers a platform to discuss the challenges faced by our region, with the input of experts and changemakers.
06/12/2025
2:45pm - 4:30pm
Hybrid | Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
This program is in redevelopment. Click this page for DEI resources.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
Join us on June 12 for a highly interactive virtual workshop with Strategic Career & Leadership Coach Carole-Ann Penney.
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
Small businesses are the backbone of the Boston economy. Learn more about the resources available through the Chamber.
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For over 30 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
Although the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (PFMLA) has been in effect for over a year, with employers withholding contributions since October 1, 2019, benefits will become available for the first time beginning in 2021.
Here’s what both employees and employers in Massachusetts need to know about the new paid family and medical leave.
Most benefits under the PFMLA will become available on January 1, 2021. Covered individuals (most employees who receive a W-2 and certain contractors who receive a 1099-MISC) can receive a maximum weekly benefit of up to $850, determined by the individual’s average weekly earnings, for up to 26 total weeks of paid leave in a benefit year. Covered individuals can begin applying for most paid family leave benefits beginning on January 1, 2021 including:
Beginning July 1, 2021, covered individuals may also begin taking up to 12 weeks of paid family leave to care for a family member with a serious health condition.
A business owner who pays him or herself through a W-2 is considered a covered individual of the business’s workforce under the PFMLA. Other self-employed individuals can choose to opt-in to PMFLA eligibility by paying both the employer- and employee-funded contributions to the state program.
Employers can still choose to provide their own private plan to substitute or supplement the state offerings. An employer whose private plan offers benefits which equal or exceed the benefits provided by the state may apply for an exemption from collecting, remitting, and paying contributions under the PFMLA. An employer may continue to offer an existing insurance benefit such as a short term disability policy which provides fewer benefits than the state benefits as a supplement to state benefits but must collect, remit, and pay the employer contributions under the PFMLA. If a covered individual receives benefits from the employer’s supplemental benefit for one of the qualifying reasons under the PFMLA, the employer may receive a reimbursement for the employer’s contributions for that employee.
The PFMLA will not provide paid family leave benefits for employees to care for a child whose school or childcare provider is closed or unavailable due to COVID-19 unlike the paid expanded family leave benefits provided under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. However, an employee who is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or caring for a family member who is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms may be eligible to take paid medical leave under the PFMLA due to a “serious health condition.”
An employer must not discriminate or retaliate against an employee for taking leave under the PFMLA. In general, paid leaves taken under the PFMLA are job protected and an employer must restore an employee to their previous position or to an equal position with the same status, pay, benefits, and seniority as of the date of the leave. However, an employer is not required to restore an employee if other similarly situated employees have been laid off during the period of leave due to “economic conditions or other changes in operating conditions affecting employment” or if the employee was hired for a specific term or project which has lapsed during the period of leave.
Our guest blogs are written and produced by organizations within our membership. They are not intended to reflect the views nor opinions of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
Sherelle Wu is an attorney at Bowditch, practicing in the firm’s Labor & Employment group. Her background specializes in employment and higher education issues such as employment discrimination, employee classification, wage and hour, noncompetition, and Title IX. Before joining Bowditch, Sherelle was a law clerk at several large Boston area law firms and Northeastern University, as well as a legal intern for the Fair Labor Division at the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General.
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