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CCH® BENEFITS — 10/02/07

Few Have Paid Family Leave: Availability Of Other Paid Leave Varies Substantially

From Spencer's Benefits Reports: Fewer than one in ten workers (8%) in the U.S. have access to paid family leave, but blue-collar and service workers are much less likely than white-collar workers to have any type of paid leave. These were among the conclusions of the Congressional Research Service’s (CRS) report, Leave Benefits in the United States. The study data was derived from the National Compensation Survey, the National Survey of America’s Families, and the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey.

Vacations and holidays were the most widely available paid “leave” benefits, according to the survey, provided by more than three-fourths of employers, but only 57% of private sector workers have access to paid sick leave and only 37% have paid personal leave. Paid leave benefits represent 7% of workers’ total compensation.

“The economic rationale underlying paid family leave is that it will increase the amount of labor supplied by women with child care (and increasingly eldercare) obligations and thereby mitigate the slowdown in labor force growth overall,” the CRS study noted. “In the United States, the end of years of escalating labor force participation by married mothers, especially mothers of infants, is overlaid on the fear of an impending labor shortfall because of its aging population.”

Also more likely to have any type of paid leave are full-time employees compared with part-time workers, union versus nonunion workers, higher-paid versus lower-paid workers (those with pay averaging less than $15 per hour), workers with a postsecondary education (80% have paid sick leave, compared with 56.3% of those with only high school diplomas); and workers for larger employers, employers in metropolitan (versus rural) areas, and employers in the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions. More fathers than mothers (83.5% versus 76.2%) are likely to have access to paid leave, as are employees for goods producers versus service providers, married parents versus single parents (81.5% versus 73.8%), and older parents with older youngest children.

Maternity Leave Limited

In a related report, even among the employers rated as best for working mothers, paid maternity leave is limited, according to a fact sheet from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. In Maternity Leave in the United States, the Institute examines data from Working Mother magazine’s 2006 100 Best Companies for working families. This data reveals that 57% of the top 100 companies provide from five to ten weeks of paid maternity leave and another 19% provide more than ten weeks, while 17% provide up to five weeks and 7% do not provide any paid maternity leave. Working fathers and workers adopting a child have even less paid parental leave time—nearly half of the 100 top companies do not provide any paid leave for new fathers or for adoptive parents. For new fathers, the maximum paid leave offered was six weeks; and for new adoptive parents, only seven of the 100 companies offered at least eight weeks of paid leave.

The Institute cites research indicating that mothers and children benefit from paid maternity leave, as follows.

• Women with any combination of paid vacation and sick time tend to take more time off after childbirth, resulting in positive health effects for both women and children.
• Women workers who have some form of paid leave take on average 10.5 weeks off after childbirth, while women without any paid leave take 6.6 weeks.
• The majority of new mothers report one or more physical side effects five weeks after childbirth, and those who had a cesarean section had significantly more health issues.
• Newborns have decreased access to follow-up care, lower rates of immunization, and decreased breast-feeding by 4.5 weeks on average as a result of early returns to work.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows qualified employees working for an employer with at least 50 employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for the employee’s new child, or for the serious illness of the employee or of the employee’s family member. Some states have implemented laws that provide for paid leave for temporary disability (California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico). In 2002, California further expanded paid time for family leave, and Washington state’s 2007 Family Leave Insurance Law established a task force to study formation of a leave insurance program to begin Oct. 1, 2009. In addition, the District of Columbia, Maine, Minnesota, and Oregon have expanded state family leave laws to firms with fewer than 50 employees that are not subject to the FMLA.

Two bills pending in Congress would provide paid time off for new parents and other workers. The Family Leave Insurance Act (S 1681), cosponsored by Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Ted Stevens (Alas.), would offer up to eight weeks of paid leave to FMLA-eligible new parents or workers caring for seriously ill family members. The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (H.R. 3158), cosponsored by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.), Steny Hoyer (Md.), and Tom Davis (Va.), would give federal employees up to eight weeks of paid parental leave.

For more information, visit http://www.iwpr.org.

For more information on this and related topics, consult the CCH Pension Plan Guide, CCH Employee Benefits Management, and Spencer's Benefits Reports.

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