Steve Hilton wants to add four more weeks to California's paid family leave program, stretching it from eight weeks to twelve, and he says he can pay for it by shrinking the state workforce by 10 percent. The Republican gubernatorial candidate pitched the plan as a way to help working families who otherwise could not afford to take extra time off to care for a new child or a sick relative.
Hilton's proposal, first detailed by the Sacramento Bee, would fund the final four weeks of leave through California's General Fund rather than the payroll tax that currently supports the program. He estimated the annual cost at $1 billion and said the money would come out of a broader plan to cut at least $25 billion from the state budget. “California should be the best place to start and raise a family,” Hilton said, according to the Bee's report.
The former Fox News host and former tech CEO, who was born in the United Kingdom, addressed reporters at the California State Capitol in Sacramento in April to lay out pieces of his fiscal platform. He has called his proposed 10 percent state workforce reduction modest, describing the broader package of cuts as relatively mild even as it touches core government operations.
How the Numbers Would Work
California's paid family leave program traces back to 2004, when the state became the first in the country to offer it, initially providing six weeks of benefits. Then-Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law in 2019 expanding that to eight weeks, and the wage replacement rate has climbed to between 70 and 90 percent of a worker's salary since 2022. Today, the program covers care for an ill family member or a new child, and it is funded entirely by an employee payroll tax rather than general state revenue.
That funding structure matters because it explains the gap Hilton is trying to close. Eligible California workers already have up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave under the California Family Rights Act, but the cash benefits that make leave financially possible currently run out after eight weeks, according to the California Civil Rights Department. As of January 2026, the payroll tax that funds those benefits sits at 1.3 percent with no wage cap, per the state's Employment Development Department, and the maximum weekly benefit rose to $1,765 for 2026, up from $1,681 the year before.
The Workforce Cut Behind the Plan
Hilton's plan to cut the state workforce by 10 percent sits at the center of what his campaign calls Operation Zero Waste, which also calls for immediate cancellation of the California High-Speed Rail project and 5 percent across-the-board cuts to state agency spending. Hilton plans to eliminate state high-speed rail funding entirely and has said the plan targets savings that would flow toward his more expensive proposals, including the leave expansion and a separate plan to end taxes on the first $150,000 of income.
California's direct executive state government workforce totals roughly 247,446 employees, meaning a 10 percent cut would require eliminating close to 24,700 positions, according to figures circulated by Hilton's campaign. Beyond the workforce reduction and the bullet train cancellation, Operation Zero Waste also seeks savings by eliminating state-funded Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented residents, as reported by the Contra Costa Herald. Hilton has separately floated creating a state-level “CAL DOGE” office modeled on efficiency-cutting initiatives elsewhere, aiming for 5 percent agency-wide savings and up to $50 billion in first-year budget adjustments.
Becerra's Camp Calls the Funding Incomplete
Jonathan Underland, a spokesperson for Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra, criticized Hilton's paid family leave plan, saying it lacks a real funding plan. Hilton trailed Becerra by double digits in a UC Berkeley poll taken in August, a gap Hoodline detailed in its report on the 55-37 survey. Hilton and Becerra, a former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, advanced from California's top-two primary on June 2, setting up a November 3 general election in a state that has not elected a Republican governor since 2006.
Even if Hilton wins, he would likely face a hostile reception in a legislature expected to retain a Democratic supermajority after November. Any large-scale workforce reduction would also run into California Labor Code Section 227.3, which classifies accrued vacation and paid time off as earned wages that cannot be forfeited, meaning the state would owe immediate payouts to departing employees even as it tries to bank savings.
A Deficit Looms Over the Debate
The fight over funding comes as California's own budget outlook grows tighter. The Legislative Analyst's Office projects an $18 billion deficit for the current fiscal year, with recurring structural deficits approaching $35 billion annually starting in fiscal year 2027-28, a gap Hoodline previously reported when covering Hilton's regulatory freeze pitch. The Legislative Analyst's Office has attributed much of the state's rising spending to growth in schools, community colleges and Medi-Cal, and the overall state budget has grown to around $100 billion since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local governments have moved in a different direction on family leave. San Francisco's 2016 Paid Parental Leave Ordinance already requires covered employers to supplement state benefits so eligible workers receive up to 100 percent of their regular pay during bonding leave, a policy Hoodline outlined when a city supervisor pushed to halve the wait for new parents. Whether Hilton's statewide expansion can survive the Legislature, the state's fiscal squeeze and the logistics of a mass workforce reduction remains an open question heading into November.
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