Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Cities, states embrace paid caregiver leave, but it’s tough on small firms
NEW YORK — Within three months, one of MacLaren Cummings’ staffers passed away from cancer and then both his own mother and the mother of an employee were diagnosed with breast cancer. Although he was the CEO, Cummings says, “the last thing I could think about was work.”
That painful stretch in 2011 planted the seeds for a paid family leave policy at Terakeet, his internet marketing company based in Syracuse, N.Y.
“It changed my perspective on work/life balance and the importance of people being able to have time to spend with families and loved ones and not worry about a paycheck,” Cummings says.
Paid time off to care for ill family members is a benefit many employees wish for, but it’s hard to come by — especially at very small companies with limited financial resources. But a quarter-century after the Family and Medical Leave Act gave employees at larger businesses up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off for their medical needs or those of family members, a growing movement aims to help staffers at small businesses get paid leave.
Advocates for paid time off are lobbying for more states to get on board. Right now, paid family leave is the law in just four states, with one more and Washington, D.C., set to implement it in two years. Company owners elsewhere who can afford to provide it know it’s not only compassionate but also makes them more competitive in a tight labor market.
Paid leave for caregiving is separate from parental leave following a birth or adoption, a benefit more common at large corporations but that many small companies also struggle to provide. The Family Medical Leave Act requires employers with 50 or more workers to give them unpaid leave for their own medical needs, after the birth or adoption of a child or to care for an ill family member. Workers who take leave are guaranteed a job to come back to.
Some state and local laws allow workers at smaller companies to take unpaid time off for caregiving. Thirteen states and Washington, D.C., require employers to give parents and caregivers unpaid leave of varying lengths for different situations; the majority apply to businesses with under 50 employees.
But paid family leave, including time for caregivers, is the law only in California, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, which have employee and/or employerfunded insurance pools to partially replace workers’ wages;
See LEAVE, Page 2G