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The Department of Labor 2000 Family and Medical Leave Surveys
The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides covered and eligible workers with up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave so they can care for a seriously ill child, spouse or parent; stay home to care for their newborn, newly adopted or newly placed child; or take time off when they are seriously ill. Under the Act, a bipartisan Commission on Family and Medical Leave was established to assess family and medical leave policies.
The Commission, through its 1995 surveys, found that the FMLA was working well. This past year, the Department of Labor commissioned updates to the 1995 employee and employer surveys. The new report, Balancing the Needs of Families and Employers, offers a first look at the 2000 survey data, offering a wealth of new information on workers’ use of family and medical leave, including FMLA-covered leave, the policies and practices of employers, and the impact of such leave, and compares the 2000 survey data to data from the previous surveys.
The FMLA is still a great success -- Millions of workers benefit from the Act
Data from the 2000 surveys show that the Family and Medical Leave Act remains a balanced approach to meeting the needs of workers and employers. Since 1993, over 35 million covered and eligible workers benefited from taking leave for family and medical reasons. For most employers, the Act had no noticeable effect on their overall productivity, profitability or growth.
Most employers report no effect from the FMLA, including use of intermittent leave
For more than 80 percent of covered employers, the Act had a positive effect, or no noticeable effect, on business productivity, profitability and growth. Two-thirds of covered employers reported that, overall, complying with the Act was very or somewhat easy, although in 2000, more covered employers reported that complying with the FMLA was very or somewhat difficult than did so in the 1995 survey.
The survey found that for most covered employers, intermittent leave had no impact on their business. In fact, the overwhelming majority of employers said the use of intermittent leave had no impact on productivity or profitability. Larger employers did report more negative impact than did smaller employers.
Workers strongly support the FMLA
More than four in five employees surveyed believed that every worker should have up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a year for family and medical problems and two-thirds believed such leave was not an unfair burden on co-workers. Both of these findings were more positive than for the 1995 survey. In the 2000 survey, 85 percent of employees reported that the taking of leave by co-workers had a positive or neutral impact on them.
Some families face barriers in balancing work and family
More than half of the workers who took family or medical leave were concerned about having enough money to pay bills. The survey found that more than one-third of leave takers received no pay during their longest leave and nearly two out of every five leave takers had to cut their leave short due to lost pay. Lack of pay was an even greater concern to workers who needed to take leave. By far, the most commonly noted reason for not taking leave was being unable to afford it. In fact, 88 percent of those who needed time off but did not take it said they would have taken leave if they could have received more (or at least some) pay during their leave.
Another barrier to taking leave was worry about losing one’s job. Almost one-third of all workers who needed leave but did not take it cited worry about losing their job as a reason for not taking leave.
Awareness of the FMLA remains the same
In general, employers’ and employees’ awareness of whether they are covered by the Act has not changed since 1995. For those employers classified as covered, 84 percent said they knew they were covered. For employees in covered establishments, just 38 percent correctly reported that the FMLA applied to them and about one-half did not know if it did.
Balancing the Needs of Families and Employers explores these and other issues as well as offers possible directions for further research and public policy. See the Department of Labor’s website for a copy of the report: http://www.dol.gov/dol/asp/public/fmla/main.htm
01/09/01
