What Are Family Leave Benefits

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Work and Family Policies for Todays Working
Families
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About the National Partnership

• Enacted in 1993
• Founded in 1971 as Womens Legal Defense Fund
• Led coalition to pass the Pregnancy
  Discrimination Act of 1978
• Drafted and led coalition to pass the Family and
  Medical Leave Act of 1993
• Led coalition to enact a Patients Bill of Rights

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Our Priorities Today

• Improve access to quality, affordable health care
• Promote fairness in the workplace
• Advance policies that help women and men meet the
  dual demands of work and family

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Health

• Health Reform (access, quality and cost)
• Perinatal Measures
• Health Information Technology
• Reproductive Health Rights

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Workplace Fairness

• Affirmative Action
• Education and Title IX
• Equal Employment Opportunity
• Paycheck Fairness
• Pregnancy Discrimination

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Workplace Policies Dont Respond to Working Women
and Our Families.
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More Women are Working for Pay Than Ever Before
Labor Force Participation Rates by Sex, 1986 -
2016
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Were Also Working Longer Hours than Ever Before

• In 2003, the average U.S. worker clocked 1,978
  hours during the year, up 36 hoursnearly a full
  weeksince 1990.

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Yet Women Continue to be Largely Responsible for
Families
Percent of Working Caregivers Reporting that They
Source The Widening Gap, Jody Heymann, 2000
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Women are Less Likely to Have Access to Basic
Paid Time Off
Source Jody Heymann, Global Working Families
Project at Harvard
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Lower-Income Women are Less Likely to Access
Basic Work Family Policies
Source AFL-CIO, Ask a Working Woman survey, 2004
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What Policies and Programs Can Working Families
Count On?
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Work Family Laws

• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
• Paid Family Leave in California, New Jersey, and
  Washington State
• Temporary Disability Insurance in California,
  Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island
• Paid Sick Days in San Francisco, Washington, DC,
  and Milwaukee
• But some of these are not available to all
  workers and many do not provide protections for
  victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or
  stalking.

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Family and Medical Leave Act A Groundbreaking
Law

• Enacted in 1993
• Up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave from work
• To recover from a serious health condition
• To care for a family member with a serious health
  condition
• To care for a newborn or newly-adopted child
• While on leave, an employees benefits such as
  health insurance coverage must be continued
• At least 100 million workers have taken FMLA
  leave since its enactment

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FMLA Who is Eligible

• To be eligible, a worker must
• Work for a business with at least 50 employees
  within a 75-mile radius
• Work at least 1250 hours in 12 months (average of
  24 hours/week)
• This time period does not need to be consecutive.
• 40 of the workforce is not eligible for FMLA

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FMLA Serious Health Condition

• Illness, injury, impairment, physical condition
  or mental condition that causes a period of
  incapacity
• Requires an inability to work and an overnight
  stay in a hospital or continued treatment by a
  health care provider
• Examples chronic health conditions, illness
  requiring multiple treatments, pregnancy

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But FMLA is Only the First Step

• Millions of eligible workers need to take leave,
  but cannot afford time off without pay.
• Workers forced to make impossible choices
• Workers must take time away from work and lose
  payat the time when they need the money the most
• FMLA does not cover safety needs related to
  domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
• FMLA covers only serious or chronic illness
• What about common illnesses like the cold and
  flu?

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Whats Next?

• FMLA Expansion
• Dropping the employer threshold
• Expanding the definition of family
• Increasing the uses for FMLA leave, including for
  domestic violence-related needs

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Paid Sick Days
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• Half of workers dont have paid sick days
• 3 in 4 low-wage workers dont have paid sick days
  
• 4 in 5 food service or hotel workers dont have
  paid sick days
• Nearly 100 million workers dont have paid sick
  days to care for a sick child
• Half of working moms miss work when a child gets
  sickand a quarter dont get paid

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Workers Need Paid Sick Days

• Paid Sick Days is for different purposes than
  FMLA
• Basic labor standard
• Paid time off for short-term, routine illnesses,
  like the cold or flu
• Without much advance notice
• No federal paid sick days law for workers or
  their families
• Only San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Milwaukee
  have paid sick days laws
• But paid sick days alone isnt enough.

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What Policies Protect Domestic Violence Victims
in Employment?
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Domestic Violence Employment

• Domestic violence is not confined to problems in
  the homeit can extend into places such as the
  office.
• Batterers may harass the victims through
  excessive phone calls. This can reduce
  productivity of the victims and of their
  coworkers.
• Batterers may come to the workplace, and harm or
  attempt to harm the victimsand other employees.

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Domestic Violence Employment (cont.)

• 96 of employed DV victims have problems at work
  because of the violence
• 25-50 lose their jobs as a result
• No Federal law currently prohibits discrimination
  on the sole basis of being a victim of DV, sexual
  assault, or stalking
• BUT there are some laws and recent proposals to
  provide victims with the time off they need to
  address these issues.

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Paid Safe Days (DC)

• In May 2008, the District of Columbia enacted the
  second paid sick days law, and the first to
  include paid safe days.
• Called the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of
  2008, this legislation provides paid sick days
  for workers.
• It also allows victims of domestic violence,
  sexual assault, and stalking to use the laws
  paid sick and safe days to address their
  situations.

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Paid Safe Days (DC)

• Victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and
  stalking can use accrued paid time off
• to go to the police,
• get a court order,
• seek shelter,
• obtain counseling, or
• take other essential steps to ensure the safety
  of themselves and their children.

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Paid Safe Days (Other Localities)

• Following D.C.s law, Milwaukee passed a ballot
  initiative in November 2008 that also provides
  paid sick and safe days.
• Nearly every current state and local paid sick
  days effort now includes paid safe days.

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Paid Sick Days State and Local Action
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Healthy Families Act

• Federal legislation to provide up to 7 paid sick
  days a year
• To care for self or family members, and for
  doctors appointments
• Applies to business with 15 workers
• In addition, the authors of the bill are
  considering including paid safe days in the new
  version they will introduce later this spring.

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FMLA and D.V.

• FMLA can be used for medical attention and to
  heal from injuries related to an incidence of
  domestic violence.
• Injuries must constitute a serious health
  condition under the FMLA.
• Ex. post-traumatic stress disorder
• neck or back injuries
• head injuries

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Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (HR 824)

• This omnibus FMLA expansion bill establishes paid
  family leave programs for private employers and
  paid parental leave for federal employers, amends
  the FMLA to allow leave for school activities and
  leave for victims of domestic violence, and
  reduces the firm size threshold to 25 employees.
• House Status  Introduced by Rep. Maloney in
  February.

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For More Information

• Karen Minatelli
• National Partnership for Women Families
• 202/986.2600
• kminatelli_at_nationalpartnership.org
• www.paidsickdays.org
• www.nationalpartnership.org