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
We can fix it for you. We fix everything in Washington. We raise your taxes, we raise the deficit, we have more regulations, so we can give you more mandates and tell your employer what to do in Topeka, KS, or wherever it may be in America…. Well, Mr. President, this is one of those cases where Washington does not know best….The real world impact of this well-intentioned legislation--this mandate--is that employers will revisit those projections and budgets and cut back on something else, including creating new jobs at the very time that we need new jobs.
[The FMLA] is an unprecedented, inflexible, Government-mandated employee benefit that will strangle both individual and employer flexibility in addressing workplace needs….Government mandates…do not contribute to economic recovery and growth. Resources spent to comply with Federal mandates cannot be spent to create jobs. These mandatory costs on business are not good for the economy as a whole. Employers must be free of the same kind of rigidities that have plagued the economies of many nations in Europe.
We must also recognize that mandated benefits may limit the ability of some employers to provide other benefits of importance to their employees. The number of innovative benefit plans will continue to grow as employers endeavor to attract and keep skilled workers. Mandated benefits raise the risk of stifling the development of such innovative benefit plans.
[John] Motley [of the NFIB] warned that business owners should not be fooled by small-business exemption [in the FMLA]. ‘That’s only temporary,’ he assured them, adding that he sponsors ‘stated aim’ was ‘paid leave for all employees.’
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.
