What is the FMLA?
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that lets employees take unpaid leave to take care of a newborn, seriously ill immediate family member, or themselves if they're recovering from a major illness. Employees may use as much as 12 weeks of leave over any 12-month period.
The United States remains the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn't offer paid family leave; the 1993 law marked an early attempt to begin catching up with them. Even so, little action has been taken since then, as the law was extremely controversial among employers. Progress has been made in fits and starts, mostly at the state and local levels. The following 11 states and the District of Columbia now require employers to offer paid family and medical leave:
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Massachusetts
- Maryland
- New Jersey
- New York
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Washington