Paid family leave

Paid family leave refers to leaves taken from work for the purpose caring for an ill family member or to care for a new child, during which the leave-taker receives some level of financial support from the employer, an insurance policy, or a government program. Other names for paid family leave include "Family Disability Leave," "Family Leave Insurance" and "Paid Parental Leave."

Paid Family Leave has been available as a legal right and/or governmental program for many years, in one form or another, in many countries throughout the globe — with the notable exceptions of the United States of America and Australia (Australia, unlike the US, does provide one year of unpaid job leave and a lump sum payment for new babies).

Since the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, paid family leave has grown as a political, social, and worker's rights issue, since the FMLA provides for only unpaid family leave. The state of California enacted the first government-run Paid Family Leave program in the United States, though the program is funded entirely through the contributions of workers. In May, 2007, the state of Washington enacted legislation providing paid family leave for bonding with and caring for new children; becoming the second state to pass paid family leave legislation.

As of May, 2007, no commercial insurer has offered any form of commercially available Family Leave Insurance that provides a source of income during unpaid family leaves, though two US patent applications have been filed for methods of providing such insurance.

Certain credit card issuers and other lenders have for years offered "credit protection" insurance that pays either minimum payments or interest only on the credit balances during certain "family leaves". These types of insurance are usually sold as "credit protection" or "credit score protection".

A 2002 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that approximately 30% of all large companies offer some level of paid family leave, though as a total of all employers this as a very low number.

ee also

*Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
*Parental Leave

References

* [http://www.clasp.org/publications/getting_punched_fullnotes.pdf] Levin-Epstein, Jodie "Getting Punched: The Job and Family Clock" Center for Law and Social Policy (July 2006)
* [http://www.clasp.org/publications/oaw_paper1_full.pdf] Lower-Basch, Elizabeth "Opportunity at Work: Improving Job Quality" Center for Law and Social Policy (September 2007)
* [http://www.clasp.org/publications/responsive_workplaces.pdf] Levin-Epstein, Jodie "Responsive Workplaces: The Business Case for Employment That Values Fairness and Families" Reprinted from "The American Prospect", March 7th, 2006