Yesterday, the House Education and Labor Committee Workforce Protections Subcommittee held a hearing titled “Balancing Work, Health, and Family: The Case for Expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act”.
Unlike previous hearings, this hearing was primarily focused on expanding unpaid leave and discussed proposals to alter the existent Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) to generally expand American workers’ access to the unpaid family and medical leave benefits provided by the law. Predictably, the hearing also included some references to the proposed FAMILY Act, as well as the effects that state paid family and medical leave insurance programs have had on both workers and employers.
Proposed changes to the FMLA’s standards included the removal of minimum employee thresholds, the removal of hours-worked eligibility requirements, expansion of the current definition of “family member” for which an employee may take leave to care for, and the addition of qualifying circumstances for which an employee would be able to take leave including bereavement leave, organ donor leave, and leave to attend a child’s school event.
Subcommittee Chairwoman Adams addressed the reality that, while expanded access to FMLA would certainly secure leave and job protection for more Americans, unpaid leave is simply not an affordable option for the most vulnerable members of today’s workforce. On the other hand, Ranking Member Cline reminded the Subcommittee that the FMLA’s eligibility standards were originally established to protect small employers from the negative economic impacts associated with a mandate to provide extended periods of leave.
ERIC provided testimony ahead of the Subcommittee hearing to highlight the critical role that large, multistate employers play in providing paid family and medical leave benefits to millions of employers across the country as well as the unique challenges created by the current patchwork of state paid leave laws. As ERIC continues to make in-roads with members of Congress and their staff to bring greater attention to this important reality, we will push for a national solution that provides relief from the compliance burdens of today’s multistate paid leave landscape.