U.S. House committee holds hearing on paid leave

What if the U.S. had only one paid leave law? On February 24, the U.S. House Employee Protections subcommittee held a hearing titled “Balancing Careers and Care: Examining Innovative Approaches to Paid Leave.” The hearing was held to examine the issues and challenges of the U.S. paid leave landscape.

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives eligible employees unpaid, job-protected leave. State paid leave laws, however, help fill in the wage gap to provide employees with paid leave, since only 27 percent of private sector workers in the U.S. currently have access to some form of paid time off. More than 20 states and the District of Columbia have enacted paid leave laws that allow employers to access private insurance and offer paid leave to their employees.

With the patchwork of state paid leave laws, House members at the hearing recognized the challenge private-sector benefits managers have in navigating them. State leave laws have different details, such as:

• Employer coverage;
• Employee eligibility to take leave;
• How leave is paid;
• State involvement in administering the leave;
• Reasons for leave, including the definition of a family member;
• Documentation of leave;
• Amount of leave; and
• Job protections.

One plan to try to cover all applicable state leave laws is not usually effective, given all the differences.

Members of the House Bipartisan Paid Leave Working Group have been working to produce a common-sense, bipartisan proposal at the federal level to improve paid leave. Last year, they came up with the More Paid Leave for More Americans Act (H.R. 3089), which rests on several pillars, including:

• Establishing a public-private partnership, and
• Incentivizing coordination and harmonization of paid leave benefits across states through an Interstate Paid Leave Action Network, or I-PLAN.

The I-PLAN would work toward having state laws have commonality with current distinctions, such as employer coverage and employee eligibility. Historically, however, employers haven’t taken advantage of optional private-public programs.

Members also asked witnesses about the need to address fraud in these paid leave programs, as they try to design a roadmap to a better employee paid leave solution.

Could a federal paid leave law be in the future? Employers shouldn’t hold their breath on this or whether H.R. 3089 will become law. They should, however, keep an eye on Congress’s interest in this issue.