The Family and Medical Leave Act was passed more than 20 years ago. It allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off for medical or family reasons without fear of losing their jobs.
But the reality is that in some situations for many Americans, having a stretch of time without pay isn’t feasible. This can make things like health complications, family emergencies or maternity leave increasingly stressful.
For this reason, President Obama pushed for paid family leave in his State of the Union address. He proposed $2.2 billion in next year’s federal budget to help five states get paid leave programs started and functioning, and $35 million for other states to begin planning.
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In addition to that, the Democrats have reintroduced the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act. The chances of it passing with Republicans in control of Congress are slim, but here’s how it would work:
It’s a national paid leave program to cover two-thirds of a workers wages for up to 60 days a year. Workers could use this time if they have a serious health condition or a family member does, and if they have a newborn or adopted child. This wouldn’t apply for employees of companies with less than 50 workers. And a worker must have been with the company for at least a year and logged 1,250 hours. It would be administered by the Social Security administration, and workers and employers would split the cost of the program.
This national program would likely be modeled after the four state paid leave programs that are already in place, according to NPR.
Three of them — California, New Jersey and Rhode Island — fund the programs entirely by withholding employee wages. The programs are administered by states’ unemployment insurance agencies in conjunction with temporary disability insurance programs, according to human resources consultant Mercer. (Washington state has a paid leave program on the books, but it has never been implemented because legislators haven’t approved funding.)
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California has had its program in place for more than ten years. It provides workers 55 percent of their weekly pay for up to six weeks of leave annually, and it caps off at $1,104 weekly. As NPR reported, a survey conducted for the U.S. Department of Labor indicates that employers in the state have responded well to the program, citing that in the majority of cases having this as an option can actually increase morale and productivity in workers.
As NPR also pointed out, small business and other groups oppose this kind of program because of the cost and the increased government intrusion. Republicans in Congress will likely feel the same way. Time will tell.
