Thirty years after federal law established unpaid family and medical leave, a nationwide push to expand these benefits and provide wage replacement for employees away from work has mounted.
While individual states have taken initiative to broaden access to these benefits, this approach often ignores existing
In 1993, Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) with bipartisan support, securing access to unpaid leave and job protection for millions of
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Since then, many employees have come to appreciate and even expect paid leave benefits. Large, multistate employers have responded in kind by designing and administering effective and efficient paid leave benefits now enjoyed by millions of Americans. These proven voluntary benefit programs have long granted workers the critical financial support and flexibility that they want and need to care for their families.
So, what is the problem?
Without a nationwide paid leave framework, state lawmakers continue to take matters into their own hands. Beginning with California in 2002, and most recently including Minnesota and Maine, 13 states and Washington D.C. have enacted mandatory, government-administered paid family and medical leave insurance programs. State politicians don't seem to be slowing down anytime soon; more than 300 paid family leave bills have been introduced and considered across nearly every state in recent years. Even some localities have gotten into the act, further muddying the waters.
The growing number of state-mandated programs operate altogether independently from one another, generally collecting income-based contributions to fund benefit payments for qualifying workers. They each adopt separate standards for leave duration, wage replacement, eligibility, administration, coordination with other available benefits and a long list of other arcane specifics.
Even more confounding, these programs often provide different answers to basic questions such as, "What circumstances qualify for leave?" and "Who is a family member?"
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The outcome: this ever-expanding piecemeal approach by individual states has threatened to drag down valuable employer-provided sources of paid leave even as state programs claim to improve quality and access for all. As a result, state actions on paid leave regularly make it harder for employers to continue providing benefits that exceed the programs they created.
Indeed, while the drive behind the spate of state-paid leave laws is often well-intentioned and aimed at securing broader access to critical benefits, state lawmakers often demonstrate a limited understanding of or appreciation for the valuable paid leave benefits that millions of Americans receive and enjoy through private employer plans.
To begin with, the quality and value of benefits provided by the state-paid family leave programs regularly pale in comparison to their more robust employer-provided equivalents, which often grant full wage replacement and a far easier administrative process for employees most in need of leave. At the same time, because large, multistate employers are forced to adapt to a constantly shifting paid-leave landscape, they need to spend significantly more than otherwise would be required simply to remain compliant. Ironically, the result is that money then cannot be spent on benefits for their employees.
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Ultimately, these complex state-based compliance standards discourage many employers from exploring new and innovative approaches to paid leave. Instead, they are often forced to enroll in state programs that cannot match the quality of benefits or ease of access their employees previously received. It becomes increasingly clear, then, that many of these workers would be far better served by a uniform federal framework of paid leave standards that recognize the value and support that voluntary, employer-provided benefits are uniquely able to provide.
Fortunately, the feds may come to the rescue for thousands of employers and millions of employees — but they could certainly use a reminder and nudge from employee benefits advisers like you.
The most promising solution to this growing problem is a nascent effort in Congress to establish a foundation of uniform national paid leave standards. A bipartisan group of members in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have come together to form working groups to approach the challenge of a national paid leave policy from a fresh perspective, explore the complexity of the issue and seek common ground in pursuit of progress. The U.S. Senate's Committee on Finance held a hearing on October 25 to highlight these concerns.
As they dive into the issue, it is critical that employers that provide cutting-edge paid leave benefits are recognized and valued – not discouraged or barred from continuing that role. Any paid leave policy proposed at the federal level must provide relief from the counterproductive consequences that the state and local patchwork imposes on workers, their families and employers.
