Something benignly called “The Balancing Act of 2009″ is getting serious consideration in Congress this year. It’s really just another paid-FMLA proposal, but it has a real chance of passing this time.
To facilitate passage, a number of proposals were recently consolidated within a single bill that could bring about the most sweeping reforms since the Family and Medical Leave Act became law 16 years ago. On June 25, 2009, Representative Lynn Woolsey (D. CA) introduced the bill, which incorporates multiple expansion efforts. Taken together, these provisions could have significant implications for employers and employees alike.
Within the bill is a proposal that would essentially convert FMLA to a paid-leave statute, allowing employees to take upwards of 12 weeks of paid leave over a 12-month period for qualifying family, medical or military-exigency reasons. Here’s the way it would work:
* A federal “Family and Medical Leave Insurance Fund” would be established to finance paid-leave distributions.
* Employers and employees would jointly subsidize the trust fund by contributing 0.2% of employee earnings. That comes out to an average of about $100 per employee. The fund would be managed by the U.S. Department of Labor.
* The act would expand FMLA coverage by creating new forms of protected leave for both “parental involvement” and “family wellness.” Parental-involvement leave would allow workers to participate in certain academic and extracurricular activities of their children and grandchildren, while family-wellness leave would enable employees to assist family members in attending medical appointments and to care for elderly relatives.
* The legislation contains additional provisions that would: 1) require covered employers to provide a minimum of seven days of paid sick leave per year; 2) extend protection to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault; and, 3) allow leave to care for a broader category of family members, which would include domestic partners and same-sex spouses.
* While the FMLA currently covers only employers with 50 or more employees, the Balancing Act would expand the coverage to those with 15 or more employees. The bill would also extend eligibility to certain part-time employees who work 1,050 or more hours per year, a substantial reduction from the current minimum threshold of 1,250 hours per year.
Click here for the full text of the bill.
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Tags: Family and Medical Leave Act, FMLA, The Balancing Act of 2009
September 9th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Isn’t it ironic that a Democratic legislator from Califorinia is the sponsor of this bill when his own State is on the brink of bankruptcy. We need more leadership like his and Polosi’s to move more people from the “give” side to the “take” side. There should be a minimum qualification to introduce spending bills that if you can’t get your own house in order, you don’t qualify to spend anyone’s else’s money.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Well Said. Fox in the henhouse for sure.
September 10th, 2009 at 11:05 am
A ZZ Top song comes to mind…money for nothing and ‘chics’ for free.
More of this, and each state will be forced to enact law to bar federal intrusion. State’s Rights
September 10th, 2009 at 11:12 am
MKH, that was Dire Straits not ZZ, but otherwise an apt sentiment.
September 10th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I think the Feds just want to kill off all the HR people! We’ve had to become legal eagles to understand everything they inflict on us, and we’re catching on to their ineptitude!
September 10th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
The funny thing is, if we truly say anything about this type of bill, we are labeled as intolerant and told that it is our civic duty to fund these programs.
September 10th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
As a small business in the 20 employee range, we already have enough problem with sick days and unpaid “emergency” leaves. It’s not a matter of money – we only have certain resources, and that’s it. There’s very little backup and depth in the staff. Our people are specialists so you can’t just call Manpower for a temp. If we had two people out on leave for 12 weeks at the same time, we would be screwed! To pay employees for non-medical leave is just insane, and add to it a virtual blank check of justifiable events is unimaginable stupidity.
This administration and Congress is the most business unfriendly in our history.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
We have a very generous leave package, but looks like we will have to cut the benefits from the leave plan, reduce the sick leave benefit from all employees to subsidize a paid FMLA program for a few that would meet the criteria of the FMLA guidelines. The money has got to come from somewhere, it just doesn’t appear out of thin air like Washington would suppose.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Sawtooth, I couldn’t have said it any better. As an Independent I am being driven further and further to the right with this kind of legislation that panders to the emotions of the ill informed. But hey, they see our leaders not balancing their checkbook so why worry.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
We are a small business also. We pay health benefits to all employees plus their dependents. If this insanity continues, I’m just going to shut down the business and retire. If my staff worked as little as the government employees, we wouldn’t have any customers.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Only one more thing needs to be included in this progressive legislation, that is a provision that requires people to be my customer and pay for our products and services. This small addition is necessary to ensure that I will have the funds to pay the insurance cost.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Here’s a radical idea – how about the government introduce some legislation that would incentivize people to want to work. Give me a break…
September 10th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Ok folks, you need to make yourselves heard loud and clear about this bill as well as the myriad socialist laws now in the works. Write and call your elected reps, write your newspapers, do anything and everything in your power to tell Congress and the president you don’t want them meddling any more in your business or your life. Don’t let them get away with this theft! They steal your time, your money, and your business with more and more socialist “feel good” projects. Charity belongs in the private sector along with everything else except the court system and militia. Make your demands heard or you will see your livelihood ruined.
September 10th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Why should those of us who actually maintain some PTO or sick leave on the books rather than using it as soon as it accrues have to foot the bill for those who don’t. I agree that a serious illness in the family should not cost an employee their job (I’ve been there when my wife got sick) but I don’t agree that it should be grounds for an additional 12 weeks of paid time off in a 12 month period at someone else’s expense. Until the IRS stepped in some organizations would allow individuals to donate PTO/vacation time to an employee who used theirs up due to an illness. Maybe we should reinstate program that so that we can determine who we want to donate to and who we don’t feel deserves it.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
We already have a “paid leave” program we fund; it’s called two weeks paid vacation each year. The last thing I/we need is another employer/employee tax funding yet more social programs, whether they work or not.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Bravo! This proposal is far from perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction.
If we want our work staff to be productive and loyal, programs like this make perfect sense.
This knee-jerk, immature, reaction of “ANY GOVERNMENT PROGRAM HAS TO BE BAD” isn’t realistic in 2009. If we want our businesses to prosper and for the USA to remain competitive globally, we have to implement programs that move us forward.
I’m all for this. My only problem is how modest and conservative it is.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
This knee-jerk, immature, reaction of “ANY GOVERNMENT PROGRAM HAS TO BE BAD” isn’t realistic in 2009. If we want our businesses to prosper and for the USA to remain competitive globally, we have to implement programs that move us forward.
I’m all for this. My only problem is how modest and conservative it is.
You are absolutely right. Why should we have to work at all? I think that the bill should be ammended to give everyone every day off…and have it paid!
September 10th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
What part of “human resources” don’t you like, the human or the resources?
September 10th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I have a small company of 12 employees. Now I know that I will never grow bigger than 15.
Already I have bureaucracy upon regulations upon taxes upon more taxes to deal with as a small business owner.
For Steve Nesich to suggest that government should be dictating these types of programs in order to be competitive globally, its clear he has absolutely no understanding of business, and has never been a business owner. More “productive and loyal?” YGTBSM. Entitlements NEVER make anyone more productive or loyal- they look at it as it being their right- they are OWED!
As to the future, I promise to outsource every single position over 14- with Obamacare additionally to pay for, that 15th employee will cost an absolute fortune,
To encourage such leaves by making them “paid” is extraordinarily damaging to small companies like mine. We’ll all be left with big banks and big companies. Small companies will simply go away.
Unfortunately Ayn Rand, for us your prophecies were dead on- what foresight you had.
This is not the USA- the USSA is a far better fit.
Congratulations Karl Marx- you’ve won.
September 10th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Well let’s add the public employee pension plan for everyone to the mix so all of us can retire at 55 with 80% of our salry and benefits at the taxpayers expense then China and India can supply the world because no one in the US will be working.
September 10th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Am I crazy or is the new administration & Congress bent on levelling the playing field to the point that all Americans are unemployed, breathing clean air, and fully relying on the government!!
I’m referring to Cap & Trade, which will put an end to all oil refining in the Northeastern US, removing tax benefits on doing business overseas, this balancing act proposal providing more benfits to those few who still have a job. Do any of these idiots in Congress realize that their constituents need to work in order to pay taxes so that they can have their cushy jobs?
And how about the President’s wise selection of Van Jones; scary!!!
September 10th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
The last change to FMLA was for the purpose of adding the military component (a very responsible and good idea) however the remaining reasoning was for simplification and ways to make the family and Medical Leave act more user friendly and break down some of the red tape. The many additional requirements and paper work did just the opposite. An employee could walk into my office one moment and walk out a little latter and be on FMLA but not now. It could take up to 15 days to approve FMLA and the red tape and Gvt. BS is 5 times worse. Its ironic that their is a statement at the bottom of most of the FMLA documentation that says “paper reduction act”. Now we have a Democrat from California who is going to ad more complications all in the name of the good guy. Who do you think looses on these maybe well intended bureaucratic moves? Employers and employees. The winner is the elected official from California who gets to place his name on a bill.
September 10th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
This social medeling into our lives will continue unless the states put a stop to it, which they have a right to do.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
This site should be set-up so that we can “plug-in” our zip codes and a web page open enabling us to send faxes and e-mails to our representatives.
The faxes and e-mails should be ready for the sending; though, we should be given the ability to amend the messages to a certain extent.
In this way, we can have some impact on the legislators who keep dreaming-up these anit-business proposals.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Huh, another tax. Imagine that. Better yet having the government manage the funds. I suppose they are entitled to manage another program since they manage Medicare, Medicade, SS & the post office so well.
Balance the budget, shrink the government.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I am begining to think that the courts and the mlitia should be in control of the states
September 11th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Is there a legislator out there who can determine that what has occurred to many large American companies such as steel and auto is in part due to the incorporation of these kinds of “employee benefits” into their businesses? Is there anyone who recognizes that for each of these governmental programs created, the “flood gates” open even further for companies to seek more friendly environments elsewhere?
Businesses must become more competitive to survive and key to that competiveness are employees receiving fair wages for a fair days’ work. FMLA needs absolutely NO expansion. To make it paid is to take “work” out of the equation.
This proposed legislation by someone who has no real business background is one more move toward socialism and hence, one more nail in the coffin of the American entrepenuer and capitalism.
Finally, for our man Mr. Nesich, I suggest he offer this program to his own employees for a period of five years and report back to us as to whether it’s been too “modest and conservative ” for his bottom line.
September 11th, 2009 at 9:00 am
The two scariest parts of this proposal are laid out pretty well in the first two bullet points
1) “A federal “Family and Medical Leave Insurance Fund” would be established to finance paid-leave distributions”
2) “The fund would be managed by the U.S. Department of Labor”
Sound familiar to anyone that currently pays Social Security?
September 11th, 2009 at 10:01 am
So 12 weeks for me to be a paid “Mom” plus the week I get from PTO plus my 3 weeks vacation then I work for 8.5 months so I can get paid to be a mom the next year!
September 11th, 2009 at 10:37 am
What happened to the employee being responsible for their finances. I am an HR Director and I am also pregnant! FMLA is a great benefit but paid FMLA is really over the top. I, as a young married woman, had enough sense to take out Short Term Disability. Why does the governemnt feel the need to “give” all this freely? There needs to be a feeling of responsibility from the employee as well. Can you imagine all the unwanted babies that will be born just so mom and dad can have 12 weeks off with pay???
September 11th, 2009 at 10:39 am
All of you make good points.
Scariest parts for me is how in the world would it be recorded and administered? I can barely keep up now and we have a TPA!!!!!
September 11th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Just to put this in perspective, I am a small business owner, but I can see how my business benefits when government acts as “the umpire” and makes sure that all of us have to adhere to the same rules of the game. Otherwise, if I try to do the right thing by my employees—like giving them needed family time in a critical situation—my less ethical competitor will take advantage of that and gain a leg up on me.
With government rules specifying unacceptable business practices, my business benefits. My competitors have to act in the same way.
Ayn Rand? She was an interesting fiction writer—when I was 15 and didn’t know any better. She wrote relatively well, but her view is fantasy. She doesn’t speak to the real world of business, work and families.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:50 am
I don’t think that any of us are questioning the idea that the original FMLA was a good and useful program. What I for one do question is why the other employees in my organization should have to pay for me to take the time off when I may well have frittered my PTO away just because it wa there. If we want to fund it let’s take some money from the other social programs that so obviously benefit very few people and not from those who work for their money.
September 11th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Hello Steve Nesich – real world calling!
The last thing most small business owners want is federal standards for business management! Do you really think I want the .gov guys telling me how much ad budget I can have, or how many salesmen on the street? How’s that different from “leveling the playing field” for working hours, benefits, and pay? If I choose to grossly outspend you in productivity investment, is that an unacceptable business practice? Is outsourcing my widgets to China unacceptable?
I certainly hope you are, and remain, successful. But, my doors would close under all that .gov guidance!
September 11th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
This is over the top. We are at 10% unemployment and these boneheads are the most anti-business administration and Congress we have ever seen. Wake up America! Why do we allow a bunch of idiots who wouldn’t know the first thing about running a business continually dictate how we run ours!? Where do they think the jobs and tax revenues come from? Steve Nesich if you treat your employees as good as you claim, you should have a loyal motivated workforce that hands down gives you a huge advantage over your less ethical competitor. Do you really need the government involved? It’s called capitalism and competition. And your comment about needing this for America to remain competitive globally….huh??? Don’t look in your rear view mirror because you will see China and India passing us by while we continue to pass stupid legislation that rewards the non-producers and punishes the producers.
September 14th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
One would think that with the left of our country believing in the “theory of evolution” as the only way we were created that they would have a clue about survival of the fittest.
I am getting ready to jump into small business ownership, questioning the sanity of our elected officials, and praying for perseverance to make it and provide better lives for my employees and our potential customer base. My courage wanes at this time due to our government. Medicare, social security, USPS, GM (government motors), cars for clunkers are all sterling examples of success in vision, leadership, and execution in a swift mobile manner!
The golden rule still works, cliches are cliche because they work and are sustainable…I do not need any government run by any party to dictate the baloney that already exists and is still coming.
I agree with the rest…Wake up America, your liberties are under attack like water over rocks…slowly eroding the structure that holds it all together!