Today marks
the 20th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA),
which President Clinton signed it into law on February 5, 1993.
For the
specifics of the FMLA, please read more here: http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/
The FMLA
works. Workers have used it more than 100 million times to take critical time
off to care for family members or to recuperate from their own illnesses,
without putting their jobs at risk or losing their health insurance.[i]
Presbyterians
have long supported policies that promote healthy families, particularly as
they relate to issues of employment. In 2004, the 216th General
Assembly urged the church at all levels to "advocate for local, state, and
federal legislation that might strengthen family life," including:
"Induc[ing] employers
to offer more flexible work
hours, more paid
leave for the care of dependent
persons and child-related
activities, more telecommuting options,
more possibilities for part-time jobs with prorated wages and benefits,
family-supporting wages for all workers, and more available, affordable,
and flexible child care programs.[ii]
The FMLA is
an important milestone of family-friendly legislation that makes it all the
more possible to care for our families and work outside the home. Most people have interacted with the FMLA
through parental leave (both for birth or adoption of a child), and in addition
to providing for time to care for the arrival of a new child, FMLA also
provides for workers to take protected, unpaid leave to care for a sick parent,
spouse, or child, or to recuperate from their own serious illness.
 |
| Think Progress' Infographic on Paid Leave in Developed Nations |
But not all
workers can afford to take the unpaid
leave the FMLA ensures and about 40 percent of workers are not even eligible
for FMLA, because they work in organizations with fewer than 50 employees or are
otherwise exempted from FMLA’s protections.[iii]
As we
celebrate the great strides through the passage of the FMLA 20 years ago, we
must also look forward, making efforts to make U.S. family policy even more
family-friendly. Of the developed nations of the world, the U.S. is the only nation
that does not mandate paid leave for the birth of a child.
With your
help, we can both celebrate the traction this issue has gained over the years
and also move into a future where healthy families have are better sustained,
supported, and nurtured.
"We envision a
society in which families assume primary responsibility for the care and
guidance of their own members, supported by other citizens, members of faith
communities, and social institutions. It is preferable that those institutions
with the best combination of knowledge of the family situation and adequate resources
respond to family needs.ii
[i]
National Partnership for Women and Families, http://www.nationalpartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_work_fmla.
[ii] from "Transforming
Families," 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.), Minutes, 2004, pp. 759-760.
[iii] “Parental
Leave Policies in 21 Countries: Assessing Generosity and Gender Equality,” by Rebecca
Ray, Janet C. Gornick, and John Schmitt, published by Center for Economic and
Policy Research, http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/parental_2008_09.pdf.
