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Welcome to HR 101. Class is now in session. Today’s discussion will focus on family leave in the US.
Offering parents time off to have and care for children seems like a no-brainer, as does providing paid time-off to care for a sick or injured loved one. While these basic benefits are currently offered by some employers across a variety of industries, paid family leave is still not mandated by federal law.
The history. In 1984, the Women’s Legal Defense Fund—now known as the National Partnership for Women and Families—wrote the first draft of what would eventually become the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Known as the Family Employment Security Act (FESA), it called for up to 26 weeks per year of “unpaid, job-protected leave to care for a new child, a child’s illness, a spouse’s disability, or the employee’s own disability,” according to the Organization of American Historians. Originally, those who proposed the legislation wanted the 26 weeks of leave to be paid, but it was believed that provision would kill the bill. In the end, FESA never made it to Congress, but it did start a national conversation.
In 1993, Congress passed the FMLA and President Bill Clinton signed it into law. The FMLA provided some employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for any of the following reasons: childbirth, placing a child up for adoption or in foster care, or caring for an employee’s own or an immediate family member’s serious sickness or injury, according to research from the Organization of American Historians.
Fast-forward. Since its adoption, attempts to expand FMLA or establish a new federal family leave law have been unsuccessful. However, a 2015 revision to FMLA expanded the definition of “spouse” so that people in same-sex marriages could take protected time off to care for one another.
Currently, only 39% of employers offer paid parental leave, according to the most recent data from the Society for Human Resource Management. And just 33% of employers offer paid family leave to care for immediate family members.
Some research suggests that employers who offer a paid family leave program see improved retention rates, better recruiting rates, heightened employee morale and productivity, improved employee mental health, and a reduction in racial disparities in lost wages.
“The primary reason for employers to expand family leave is to stay competitive,” Samantha Munro, senior counsel at ADP, said last year. “In an effort to stay competitive in the market, employers are either considering or offering more expansive leave entitlements than what is required by law. To be truly competitive, they're having to offer leave that is not only more inclusive amongst all employees, but goes far beyond what is actually required.”