Happy 20th Birthday FMLA!!

In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Family Medical Leave Act ("FMLA" or "the Act") into law. FMLA allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to bond with a newborn, newly adopted or newly placed child; care for a seriously ill child, spouse or parent; or care for their own serious health condition without fear of losing their jobs.  With this legislation came the acknowledgement that the workforce was changing and therefore the needs of this changing workforce needed to be addressed.  In many ways, FMLA transformed the workplace and had a significant impact on families by helping millions of workers take job-protected leave to recuperate from a serious illness or take care of an ill family member, or give birth or adopt a new child.

Here are some key findings from the Department of Labor's 2012 FMLA Survey.

• Most Worksites Aren’t Covered By The FMLA -  but more than half of all employees are eligible. To be covered by the FMLA, a worksite must be part of a firm with at least 50 employees. Only about one in six worksites reports that it is covered by the FMLA (17%); another 30 percent are unsure. These uncovered and unsure worksites tend to be small; covered worksites tend to be larger.
• Not All Employees At Covered Worksites Are Eligible. To be eligible an employee must: (i) work for a firm with 50 employees within 75 miles of the worksite; (ii) have 12 months of tenure with this firm; and (iii) have worked 1,250 hours in the past year (about 24 hours per week). Only slightly more than half of all employees report meeting all three of these conditions to be eligible for the protections of the FMLA (59%).  
• Leave Is Not Uncommon.  Most leave taken is for the employee’s own illness (57%). Leave for pregnancy or a new child and illness of qualifying relative (spouse, child, or parent) is less common (22% and 19% respectively). Leave for other qualifying reasons, including military reasons is quite rare (2%).  Most leave is short. Nearly half of all leave events last 10 days or less (42%); less than a fifth (17%) last more than 60 days. 
• Most Employees Receive Some Pay While On Leave.  While the Act includes no requirement that employers provide any pay during the leave. Nevertheless, most employees receive some pay while on leave: 48 percent report receiving full pay and another 17 percent receive partial pay, usually, but not exclusively, through regular paid vacation leave, sick leave, or other “paid time off” hours. 
• Most Employers Report Little Negative Impact From The FMLA.   Most covered worksites that are large enough to have eligible employees (that is, 50 employees within 75 miles) report little difficulty complying with the FMLA (only 14% report “somewhat difficult”; only 1% report “very difficult; weighting by worksite). However, larger worksites are more likely to report difficulty complying, such that when weighting by employees, these figures increase to 3 percent for “very difficult” and 29 percent for “somewhat difficult”. In addition, 30 percent report that the cost of administering the FMLA is rising (50% when weighting by employees). Few worksites (less than 10 percent) perceive negative effects of complying with the FMLA on “employee productivity, absenteeism, turnover, career advancement, and morale...business profitability”. However, these negative reports are more common among large firms (29% when weighting by employees).