Jim Roepcke's weblog have browser, will travel (est. 1999)

Pete Jansson
January 25th, 2002 - 04:24

Are you on FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) unpaid leave? It’s possible that Netstruxr is too small to have to comply with FMLA, or that you get some exemption because you’re not a US national. If they have to comply, and you aren’t exempt, then you shouldn’t panic about this — you can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, and then Netstruxr is required to give you back your old job and pay when you return.

Since the FMLA was passed back in the early 90’s, most companies are now only offering unpaid leave to new parents (fathers _and_ mothers). Before there was a regulation stating what the bare minimum was, company policies differed wildly — some offered 6 weeks of paid maternity leave, while others offered none at all. Now that there’s a regulation, most companies in the US do the absolute minimum.

Peter M. Jansson
January 25th, 2002 - 04:17

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides for an employee to take
up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a family or medical emergency (new
births count), and guarantees that the employee can return to their job
or a comparable job when the leave is over. Some smaller businesses are
exempt from this regulation, so one has to check with the HR department to
make sure FMLA leave is provided.

If you were wondering it there were *paid* paternity leave in the States,
the answer would be no, but there’s usually no paid maternity leave,
either (at least since FMLA). At least you can’t get fired for taking
time off to be with your new family member.

Pete.

On Fri, 25 Jan 2002, Andrew Jung wrote:

> Don’t they have Paternal leave in the States???

Seth Dillingham
January 25th, 2002 - 05:16

On 1/25/2002 at 7:16 AM, Brian Carnell wrote:

>>Don’t they have Paternal leave in the States???
>
>No.

Actually, it depends on the company… some do offer it (but it’s not
“state mandated or sponsored”).

On the other hand, if the company is struggling, there’s no way they’re
going to be able to afford it.

Seth

Brian Carnell
January 25th, 2002 - 05:35

At 08:16 AM 1/25/2002 -0500, Seth Dillingham wrote:

>Actually, it depends on the company… some do offer it (but it’s not
>”state mandated or sponsored”).
>
>On the other hand, if the company is struggling, there’s no way they’re
>going to be able to afford it.

As of 1995, only 2 percent of U.S. companies provide this.

BTW, the reason companies do not provide this is that is generally not a
high demand in benefits requests.

Take New Jersey, for example. NJ is one of a handful of states that
mandates universal disability coverage for maternity leaves. This means
that if a woman gets pregnant while she’s out on the FMLA she has special
insurance that will cover up to 75 percent of her salary up to a maximum of
$364/week.

In order to fund that, workers in New Jersey pay a special tax that is
about $16/month per worker (though, of course, they do not usually see the
costs directly on their paycheck because the total cost is assessed to the
employer). But surveys of workers preferences for benefits clearly show
that only a small minority — 10 to 15 percent — would prefer to see $180
of their benefits go to subsidizing maternity leave as opposed to some
other option.

One last thing — most of the countries that offer paid maternity leave *do
not* require that employers offer paid maternity leave. In most European
countries, for example, the state pays for the maternity leave out of
social security-like programs or straight out of its general budget.