How Does the Family Medical Leave Act Work
The Family and Medical Leave Human action (FMLA): The Basics
The Brief
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was passed by Congress with bipartisan back up and signed into constabulary in January 1993. Twenty-nine years later, FMLA remains a cardinal tool in helping millions of American workers residuum family and work.
Last updated February 1, 2022.
What Is the FMLA?
The FMLA is a federal labor law which allows eligible employees to take upwards to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave, or to substitute advisable paid leave, if the employee has earned or accrued other forms of get out benefits for parental, family caregiver, and medical reasons.ane two
Who Can Take FMLA Leave?
Currently, nearly 56 percent of all U.S. workers are eligible for coverage under the FMLA.3
This policy covers employees who:
- Accept worked for a company for at to the lowest degree i year,
- Worked at to the lowest degree 1,250 hours during that year (or approximately 156 days),
- Live within 75 miles of the workplace, and
- Work for an employer who employs 50 or more employees for at least 20 weeks
during the current or previous year.
Employees of public agencies, including local, state, and federal agencies, and public and private uncomplicated and secondary schools, regardless of the number of employees employed, are as well eligible. 4
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What Blazon of Exit Is Covered by the FMLA?
Under the FMLA, covered employers must provide eligible employees with upwards to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year for whatsoever of the following reasons:
- The birth of a child and to care for a newborn kid inside one year of birth;
- The placement of a kid for adoption or foster care with the employee, and to
care for the newly placed child inside one yr of placement; - To care for the employee'south spouse, kid, or parent who has a serious health
condition; - A serious wellness condition that makes the employee unable to perform the
essential functions of his or her job; or - Whatsoever qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee's spouse, son,
daughter, or parent is a covered military member on "covered active duty," or
26 workweeks of exit during a single 12-month period to care for a covered
servicemember with a serious injury or disease if the eligible employee is the
service member's spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (armed services
caregiver go out).five
In certain cases, FMLA leave may be taken on an intermittent footing rather than all at once, or the employee may work a part-time schedule.vi
What is Job Protection?
A critical chemical element of the FMLA is that information technology allows an eligible employee to take leave without the threat of demotion or firing. Under the law, the employee has the right to return to the same or similar position with equivalent pay, benefits, and responsibilities. Additionally, taking leave cannot crusade the employee to lose any benefit that accrued prior to the start of the go out.vii, viii
How is the FMLA Used?
In 2018,9 15 percent of all eligible workers took unpaid, task-protected leave under the FMLA. Most leave was taken for an employee'southward own affliction (51 per centum) and nearly half (twoscore percent) of all leaves taken were shorter than 10 days. Amidst all workers, 7 percentage reported having an unmet demand for leave and two-thirds (66 percent) of these workers cited their inability to afford unpaid time off as the reason why they didn't have go out. ten
Employee Reasons for Taking Leave in 2018
| Percent of Workers | |
| Personal affliction | 51 % |
| Pregnancy, adoption, foster | 25 % |
| FMLA-covered family caregiving | xix % |
| Non-qualifying caregiving | 5 % |
Employee Reasons for Returning to Piece of work After Leave in 2018
| Percentage of Workers | |
| Desire to get dorsum to work | 69 % |
| No longer needed to be on leave | 69 % |
| Medico canonical return | 63 % |
| Used all leave fourth dimension available | xxx % |
| Felt pressured by boss/colleagues | xix % |
| Afraid to lose seniority/promotion | 18 % |
How Does the FMLA Differ from Paid Family Get out?
The FMLA provides unpaid leave with job protection to eligible employees. Paid family get out programs provide bounty while on qualifying exit but practise not always provide task protection. A number of state paid go out programs have not expanded job protection beyond what the FMLA provides. More than information on state programs and on the role of task protection is provided in the BPC fact sheets: State Paid Family unit Leave Laws Across the U.S. and State FMLA and Job-Protection Leave Laws Across the U.Due south.
End Notes
1 Electronic code of Federal Regulations, "Office 825—The Family and Medical Leave Human action of 1993," 2021. Available at: https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=abbd92cdff37c5d32de741cc5ccc1e81&rgn=div5&view=text&node=29:3.ane.one.3.54&idno=29#se29.3.825_1100.
two U.S. Department of Labor, "Factsheet #28A: Employee Protections under the Family unit and Medical Leave Act," 2012. Bachelor at: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs28a.pdf.
three U.S. Department of Labor, "FMLA Survey Fact Sheet." Bachelor at: https://world wide web.dol.gov/whd/fmla/survey/FMLA_Survey_factsheet.pdf.
iv U.South. Department of Labor, "FMLA Frequently Asked Questions." Available at: https://world wide web.dol.gov/whd/fmla/fmla-faqs.htm.
5 U.S. Section of Labor, "Family unit and Medical Leave Human action." Available at: https://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/.
6 Electronic lawmaking of Federal Regulations, "Part 825—The Family and Medical Exit Deed of 1993," 2019. Available at: https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=abbd92cdff37c5d32de741cc5ccc1e81&rgn=div5&view=text&node=29:3.1.ane.3.54&idno=29#se29.3.825_1100.
7 U.Southward. Department of Labor, "Factsheet #77B: Protection for Individuals under the FMLA," 2011. Available at: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs77b.htm.
8 U.Due south. Section of Labor, "Factsheet #28A: Employee Protections under the Family and Medical Exit Human action," 2012. Available at: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs28a.pdf.
9 Abt Associates, Assessing FMLA: Results from 2018 Surveys, September 2020. Available at: https://www.abtassociates.com/insights/publications/report/assessing-fmla-results-from-2018-surveys.
10 U.S. Department of Labor, "2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Surveys," 2020. Available at: https://world wide web.dol.gov/agencies/oasp/evaluation/fmla2018
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
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