A new national bipartisan
legislative effort is using an incentivized approach to push more employers to
offer paid family and medical leave to their employees.
Introduced in the Senate (S.2618) and as a companion bill in the House of
Representatives (H.R.5173) in July, the “Strong Families Act”
stipulates that the employer will receive a 25% non-refundable tax credit for
each hour of paid leave provided.
U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer
(R-Neb.) and Angus King (I-Maine) introduced the paid leave proposal to serve
as an extension of the Family and Medical Leave Act to encourage employers of
all sizes to provide leave options to their employees, regardless of whether
they are full-time or part-time.
Currently, the FMLA mandates
that employers provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to
eligible employees during any 12-month period. It applies to employers – both
public and private – with 50 or more employees. Meanwhile, under this current
proposal, all employers will be eligible. However, in order to receive the tax
credit, companies must offer at least four weeks of paid leave and cannot
retaliate against their workforce for participation.
Drew Crouch, director of
government relations at Buck Consultants at Xerox, explains this new
legislative effort is really “taking the carrot approach, as opposed to the
stick.”
“It’s really something that
would appeal to more employer-friendly, conservative politics,” Couch tells
EBN. He adds that most employers will likely be open to the incentive, barring
some minor tweaks to their current leave policies in order to qualify for the
stipend.
Anne Weisberg, senior vice
president for strategy at Families and Work Institute, states that it’s not
surprising that these bills have popped up during a time that President Barack
Obama’s administration has focused directly working families and
anti-discriminatory policies.
For instance, the U.S.
Department of Labor recently released guidance last month on its plans to
extend the reach of the FMLA to all eligible employees in same-sex marriages.
Weisberg explains this
legislative alternative to paid leave policies may help to turn the tide in
favor of more family leave options.
“It could help employees and
employers create a more stable, less stressful workplace – but like any policy,
issues like preventing retaliation and promoting usage have to be promoted at
workplaces themselves,” says Weisberg.
The Families and Work
Institute, a nonprofit that researches the changing workplace, family and
community, says that flexibile work schedules for full-time employees saw an
increase from 50% to 67% since 2008. But, employers offering leave for career
breaks related to personal and family reasons have dropped down to 52% from
64%, according to its 2014 national study of employers, performed in
conjunction with the Society for Human Resource Management.
According to the National
Conference of State Legislatures, only three states offer paid family and
medical leave: California, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Also, Connecticut is
the only state that has required employers offer paid sick leave to employees.
At the city level, big cities such New York, Jersey City, N.J. and Newark, N.J.
have approved or revamped their paid sick time policies recently.
Another option may be a
complete overhaul of the FMLA to require paid leave, but Crouch notes that is
probably not possible. Equally unlikely is the passage of this new paid family
leave proposal, he says.
“If we’re going to have a
system where we do paid leave, let’s just amend the FMLA and let’s require a
paid leave,” he states. “But this [legislation] is far more indirect, and if
this goes to whether this would pass, I think the answer is no, because it’s
probably going to be pretty expensive.”
When asked whether the tax
credit will incentivize employers to offer paid leave to their employees – despite
their size and situation – Weisberg says he believes that the jury is still out
on the most effective process.
“There are several proposals
for how to finance paid leave, and we have not researched the benefits of one
financing proposal over another,” Weisberg notes, but adds that “companies that
offer paid leave have found that it can work very well for both employers and
employees.”
Source: Employee
Benefit News
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