Benefits - Family Leave — A Benefit On The Move

No discussion of employment benefits would be complete without a look at trends in family-related benefits. These "benefits" are often difficult to track by following what employers pay — because the costs associated with them are indirect. But their impact on the workplace and workforce is very direct.

Changes in the labor force — increasing numbers of women, single parents, and families in which both parents work outside the home — have created enormous pressure on employers and on the political system to legislate for family-related benefits. One of these benefits, family leave, is an example of the trend.

The graph presents data on the percentage of full-time, private-sector employees with family leave coverage during the 1990s. Data are presented for both employees of medium and large establishments (100+ employees) and for employees of small enterprises (1 to 99 employees). Before 1994, family leave data were segregated into maternity leave and paternity leave. After 1993 this distinction is no longer made; data, therefore, are charted as equivalent in 1996 and 1997.

The period covered is particularly interesting. It provides a look at the status of family leave before and after the passage and enactment in 1993 of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This act requires that public-sector employers and private employers of 50 or more employees, offer 12 weeks of unpaid family or medical leave every year to qualified employees¹. Although the law does not require that the leave be paid, it does mandate that the employer maintain any health-care insurance already in place for the duration of the employee's absence.

Results of the legislation are apparent. Family-leave coverage increased dramatically during the 1990s. Passage of the FMLA has increased family leave coverage for private-sector employees more than twofold, and in the case of paternity leave, the increase has been greater yet.

Part-time employees have benefited too. Although not covered by the legislation, 54% of part-time employees of medium and large firms were offered family leave benefits in 1997, up 34% for women and 40% for men over their respective rates in 1991. Also worth noting, the increase in family leave coverage for employees of small firms includes the change for firms with fewer than 50 employees, another group to which the FMLA legislation does not apply. Yet, their numbers are also up substantially.

Passage of the FMLA reflects intense societal desire to make the workplace more amenable to the demands of family life. More legislation of a similar kind may be expected in the future.

"As federal and state lawmakers revisit family leave for medical reasons, more states look at mandating time-off for workers to attend their children's school functions."²

Also brewing on the horizon are efforts to make family leave "paid time-off." Just how to pay for such a benefit is what is now being discussed. In early 2001 eight state legislatures had introduced paid family leave legislation.³

The way in which employers handle the needs of their employees for time off to care for children and elderly and sick family members is changing. All signs point towards continued changes in this area of employment policy, as well as in other family-related benefit policies.

Source: Waldfogel, Jane. "Family leave coverage in the 1990s." U.S. Department of Labor. Monthly Labor Review, October 1999, p.13.