STRUGGLING TO GET PAID TIME OFF: Montana Falls Short in Providing Paid Family Leave.

• Author: Herling, Daphne
• Position: TRENDING

Twenty-five years ago, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was passed with the lofty goal of helping American families balance the demands of the workplace with family needs. It was underpinned by the belief that preserving the integrity, stability and economic security of families was in the nation's best interest. But the economic reality and societal structure of the American family has changed since then. In today's world, the law is no longer adequate.

While the FMLA's primary aim remains to help families retain their jobs, it fails to ensure their financial security as it grants unpaid leave to a limited number of workers. To support families, businesses and the economy, some form of paid family leave for all is essential either at the federal, state or local levels.

The Case for Paid Leave

Only 12 percent of private sector employees and about 40 percent of the entire U.S. workforce have access to leave under FMLA. As of 2016, FMLA has been used over 100 million times with the average leave duration around 10 days--most commonly for an employee's own health event.

Under the current law, FMLA allows for unpaid leave for qualified workers for qualified reasons. Once an employee uses up their regular paid vacation leave, sick leave or other paid time off hours, they are left with the option of unpaid leave or going back to work. This option disproportionately affects low-income workers. Forty-six percent of those who needed to take time off did not because they could not afford to go unpaid and many workers in the lowest wage quartiles are unlikely to have access to such benefits.

Data on Montana's workers and their income is seen in Table 1 and shows that Montana's numbers are similar to U.S. numbers. One key difference is that Montana's median and per capita income is lower than the nation's.

Many Montana measures highlight the tenuous financial security of families; particularly the number of low wage jobs in the state (28 percent) resulting in a high number of working poor (21 percent), the number of households without short-term savings to subsist at the poverty rate for three months (42 percent); and the high number of people without employer-based health insurance (43 percent).

When working Montanans have to take unpaid time off to care for a sick child, to deal with their own health event or to care for an elderly parent, it creates a financial hardship in a time of need. Once all other sources of paid leave are used up and a...