Family Medical Leave Act
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives employees twelve weeks off for a worker’s own serious health condition, to bond with a new child, or to care for a seriously ill child, spouse or parent. The FMLA guarantees unpaid job-protected leave, including the maintenance of seniority and benefits and continuation of group health insurance coverage. The worker must be returned to the same or equivalent job at the end of their leave. The FMLA applies to all public sector employees and to private sector employees in businesses of 50 or more workers within a 75-mile radius. Additionally, employees must work for their employer for at least 12 months and have worked at least 1,250 hours in the year preceding the leave.
Commentary
Chamber of Commerce Was Wrong About Family and Medical Leave Law
Cry Wolf Quotes
[I am] incredulous to hear from my staff that you are contemplating a compromise on parental leave legislation. [Mandated leave benefits are] the greatest threats to small business in America.
Passing this bill puts us on a slippery slope to closing exemptions and mandating paid leave.
On that family leave bill, I think that it would impose a burden upon businesses, including small businesses.... You would be telling businesses, through that act, that they are required to bring temporaries in, go through a training cycle, and lose the continuity that is so important to making a business function well. It has the effect of making it more expensive for them to do business. More expensive per employee, more expensive per job. The business can only defend itself by offering fewer jobs. That's the only way they can pay for it. It is a job killer….It makes it more expensive to hire people, so businesses say we won't hire people.
America’s business owners are a resilient bunch, but let there by no doubt, HR 1 will be the demise of some. And as that occurs, the light of freedom will grow dimmer.
Evidence
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A Workable Balance: Report to Congress on Family and Medical Leave Policies
A tenth anniversary study of the Family Medical Leave Act's effects.