Why Do Children Receive Paid Leave?

The balancing act of family and work can be very difficult at times. At some point in everyone’s life, he or she will need to take time off of work to deal with family matters. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 was created to help employees find a balance between the challenging demands of work and home. This Act allows eligible workers that require time off for personal reasons or family emergencies up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave.

     The Family and Medical Leave Act was enacted by Congress on February 5, 1993, and it is public law 103-3. This law allows for a person to leave work in certain situations without losing his/her job. An eligible employees must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and at least completed 1250 hours of service. An employee is able to leave work for up to 12 weeks for any of the following reasons: the employee expects a baby in his/her immediate family, the employee expects an adopted child in his/her immediate family, the employee has to take care of an ill family member which includes spouse, parent or his/her own children, and/or the employee has a serious medical

The FMLA entitles eligible employees to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/

The United States has historically been behind the developed and developing countries with regard to family leave benefits. According to Sholar (2016), with all of the parameters and limitations on the FMLA, approximately only 60 percent of the workforce is covered by this policy.

The Family and Medical Leave Act was introduced by President Bill Clinton in January of 1993. This policy was implemented for Americans to be awarded the opportunity to take time off and care for their new child or sick relative. In order to qualify for this unpaid maternity leave however, an employee must have worked for a business for at least twelve consecutive months, accumulating at least 1,250 hours of work, and be employed by a business who has a minimum staff of fifty employees. Although this policy offered many newfound benefits for mothers to be, it however did not address the potential health or economical impacts endured by new parents.

We all had a teacher in school who took maternity leave. This standard, dictated by the 1993 federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), applies not only to teachers but to women of all professions and allows mothers to take up to twelve weeks of protected, but unpaid leave (Cohn 9). This period, however, is not long enough for the mother and child to fully recover. Providing longer maternity leaves would also benefit businesses and the American society. Many countries around the world provide significantly longer leaves or even allow fathers to take paid paternity leaves. Making the American workforce a friendly place for women and families through revised maternity leave policies will benefit both the U.S. economy and U.S. families.

Compare these policies to what we have now, 12 weeks unpaid leave for the birth of a child or sick family member and no guaranteed sick or vacation leave. Sanders proposed changes area huge change for the United States but not when compared to the rest of the world (“Family and Medical Leave Act - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - U.S. Department of Labor,” 2015). In most developed countries workers are given at least 10 days of paid vacation leave, paid maternity/paternity leave, plus paid holidays on top of that. The top country that gives the most time is tied between Austria and Spain with 22 days paid leave a year with an additional 13 paid holidays (“Bernie Sanders on workers’ rights,” 2016). This does not even include maternity/paternity leave for the birth of a child. The ranges for leave in other developed countries are ranging from 14 weeks to over a year. Many of these programs are paid and supported by

For all working parents, paid parental leave is an important component to incorporate to balance the workplace and sharing a family. However most parents who undergo leave are only paid a maximum grand total of either six weeks (for vaginal delivery) or eights (for a c-section) which come from Short Term Disability funds collected by employee payroll deductions. This is not enough time for parents to recuperate properly enough to return to their jobs. In 1993, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitled all eligible employees to take unpaid job-protected leave to medical reasons by providing 12 weeks worth of job protection. But the FMLA still does not provide enough compensation, and there are also firm restrictions enforced that exclude approximately 40% of the American workforce.

Imagine someone just got out of college and they have found that special someone, have a steady job that pays well, and has been thinking about how they have always wanted to have a child of their own and now they can. That someone and their significant other finally gets the precious gift of a child of their own, but when they put in the request to get paid time off for maternity or paternity leave their boss declines the request. Now they have to make the decision either stay at their job and not be home with their newborn child in the most critical months or years of their life, or quit their job and not be able to support for the rest of their family until their son or daughter is ready to only have one parent home or have a babysitter. They are

family leave at the national level. Of the eight that do not, nearly all of them are classified as “developing” countries; all of them, that is except one:

California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island are the only three states in the United States that guarantees at least four weeks of family leave at partial income. Since most states don’t guarantee this commodity, public programs have started popping up to help pay workers whose employers don’t offer paid family leave. Denver; Franklin, Ohio; Madison, Wis.; Hawaii; Indiana; and Pennsylvania have been granted $1.1 million by the U.S. Department of Labor to research the expenses of starting their own paid family leave programs. Family leave is a controversial issue that the U.S. is far behind the world in. At the moment, the U.S. grants all new parents 12 weeks off and Democrats believe that all workers should be paid during those 12 weeks. Republicans

Being a mother is one of the best parts of a woman’s life and ultimately a part of everyday life. Women take on new responsibilities for both themselves and newborns, so it is no surprise that mothers want the best for their children. They have to adjust to their new lifestyle and continue to support their child. However, incorporating a new child and a career can be challenging in a woman’s life. To help women with their new transition into motherhood, the United States of America ensured women with the right to maternity leave in the workplace. By the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), companies are required by federal law to provide female employees with twelve weeks of maternity leave. However, this act has downfalls. The FMLA

Howbeit, despite of all the positive economic impact, companies still closed their eyes to the fact that, an employee whether a women or men, giving the situation of having a newborn baby, needs to have a 100% parental leaves. Now, what that means? That means, the 8-12 weeks parental leaves is 100% paid! Awesome! According to an article by Hogan (2015), Microsoft just announced that their parental Leave to 12 weeks, paid at 100 percent, for all mothers and fathers of new children. For birth mothers, this is in addition to the eight weeks of maternity disability

However, since the passage of the FMLA in 1993 the average length of family leave taken (among leave-takers) was only 10 days (Baum, 433). Furthermore research has shown that fathers taking as little as a week of paternity leave were significantly more involved in hands on care of their newborn (Nepomnyaschy and Waldfogel, 437). The overall cost associated with this small amount of leave would prove to be fairly minimal to almost all employers. If simply looked at as an additional week of vacation very few business would endure a major hardship overcome the loss of an employee for one week. So using cost and time away from the workplace as a primary reason to oppose paternity leave does not truly take into account the realities of the leave taken by the majority of fathers in the United

Maghan, I was privileged enough to see FMLA in action this year without requiring the use of that law myself. This observation occurred when my mother-in-law broke her hip, then broke her wrist, then they had to replace the hip again, so she was not allowed to work for almost four months. However, she did have enough sick time to take over six months off, which didn’t include her vacation time. Those were big perks for her because she lives alone and has does not have another person’s income to rely on when paying for her mortgage, car, and public utilities bill. I do agree with you in that a flexible schedule is a great perk when you have children. They do get sick, and you have to stay home with them, so allowing me to complete work on my