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1993’s Family and Medical Leave Act took an unprecedented step in the United States by ensuring that employees–at least, those working for companies with 50 or more employees–could take up to 12 weeks unpaid leave for medical or family needs without losing their jobs.  The flaw in the plan, of course, was that many American workers simply can’t take that kind of time off work and survive.  While the promise of a job to return to after illness or family crisis is very important, it’s meaningless in a practical sense if the employee has no means to take that time off and still pay the rent and put food on the table.

Now, Senators Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn) have introduced a bill that would establish mandatory insurance coverage for up to eight weeks of paid leave in such circumstances.  In its current form, the bill provides for a sliding scale benefits, so that those at the lowest end of the income spectrum would receive full salary, while those at the higher end would receive only a percentage.

Dozens of other countries guarantee paid paternity leave and paid time off for parents with sick children, and more than 150 countries already guarantee paid leave for women for childbirth.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 9:54 am and is filed under Current Legal Issues, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.