A bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives seeks to eliminate a provision of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that limits leave for certain married couples.
As it stands, under the FMLA, if two workers are married and work for the same organization, their employer is allowed to cap their combined leave at 12 weeks. By contrast, “if a couple does not work for the same employer (or does but is not married), they are not subject to this limitation,” and are each entitled to 12 weeks of job-protected leave, said Alissa Griffin, an attorney with Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP in Chicago.
The purpose of the shared cap was to protect employers from experiencing the undue hardship of granting extensive leave to two employees at once. In doing so, it also “ensure[d] that employers were not discouraged from hiring married couples” due to the potential for spouses taking long-term leave at the same time, Griffin explained.
Whatever its intentions, the shared cap has been under scrutiny for years. These days, it is “generally understood that both parents should be able to spend time away from work for family-related obligations,” Griffin said.
Introduced in July 2023, the FAIR Leave Act (short for Fair Access for Individuals to Receive Leave Act) would amend the FMLA by permitting each spouse to take the full 12 weeks of FMLA leave for the birth or placement of a child, or to care for seriously ill relatives. Specifically, the bill would repeal Section...
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