Running Head: FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

Report on Controversial Family Policy:

Family & Medical Leave Act
Kimberly Linnig
University of North Texas

Abstract
This paper is a review of current works on the positive attributes that would result from paid
parental leave from the viewpoint of the employee. The term parental leave will be used in
describing maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption, and other related situations (Gault,
Hartmann, Hegewisch, Milli, & Reichlin, 2014). Specifically, a focus will be put on the Family

FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which was enacted by President Clinton in 1993 to require that
employers offer up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave to qualified employees. This policy put in
place regulations to provide leave for those whom are pregnant or caring for a newborn, and
while 60% of Americas labor force are eligible for FMLA there are unable to use it due to it
being unpaid or their employer does not even offer it as a choice (Ray, Gornick & Schmitt,
2008).

Report on Controversial Family Policy:

Family & Medical Leave Act
Starting in the 50s, the country seemed to be mimicking the idealized world of the TV
show Leave it to Beaver. The wife was at home tending to her children and keeping the house in
order, while the husband went out and provided for the family. 50 years later, and this picture has
flipped entirely and the female work force is continually climbing; so high that the working
mothers have surpassed the record from the times of Rosy the Riveter in World War II
(Meisenheimer, 1989). A problem was met when women wanted to be a part of the working
sector, while simultaneously starting a family.

FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

Fast forward a few years and we come to the creation of the Family and Medical Leave
Act (FMLA). This policy was put in place to protect the employee, and to require employers to
allow 12 weeks of unpaid leave, so the eligible employee could have time to take care of their
infant, adopted child, or a family member in need of medical supervision (Mejeur, 2013). For the
employee to be eligible for FMLA, they must have worked for that company for a minimum of a
year, have 1,250 hours of work completed within that year, and the employer must have at least
50 individuals employed in the company within a 75 mile radius. While FMLA may have broke
ground on protecting the jobs of individuals, there was more criticism from the act than praise.
60% of the United States labor force is eligible for FMLA, but a majority of them never receive
it, and if they were lucky enough to receive it they still werent paid during their leave of absence
to raise their child (Earle, Mokomane, & Heymann, 2011). On top if the unpaid leave, there was
a lack of support for the lower-income women in need.
Three states tried to resolve the issue themselves by making parental leave more
accessible to their public. California, New Jersey and Rhode Island created individual policies
for the habitants of their state to receive paid leave by use of employee-paid payroll taxes which
deducted a small amount of each employees pay check every month (Gault et al., 2014).
Following their state mandates, a few years later Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York created
an FAMILY Act, which would be a federal insurance program, which would take .2% of both
employee and employer wages to fund her paid leave program, avoiding adding to the federal
debt as she states in her American Opportunity Agenda (2013). The Senators agenda also
revolved around being available to everyone no matter how big a company they work for, as well
as it being a feasible option for employed and unemployed individuals. The key point of this
program is how they pay for the paid parental leave, and the safety net it creates for society.

FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

Since the costs are small and evenly allocated to the population, it is removing the weight on the
independent business owners as well as lowering the likeliness that those owners will
discriminate against staff who may want to take advantage of leave at some point (Ray et al.,
2008).
Worldviews of Family Change
With all of these policies focused on the lives of the individual, there is bound to be a
conflict over which issues should be weighted as most important or least important, especially in
a time such as now with the major shift in societal structure. Karen Bogenschneider (2014)
explains controversy results from the difference in how the each of the individual worldviews
defines, rationalizes, and understands the changes in family (Bridging Controversy and Building
Consensus, page 196). There are three factions within this context; the concerned faction, the
satisfied faction, and the impatient faction.
The concerned faction revolves around the idea that the social construct of family is
crumbling. Those within this group tend to be in favor of the individualistic mindset and want
decentralization of federal power, meaning they want minimized federal oversight
(Bogenschneider, 2014). Individuals of the concerned faction might be in favor of the current
stance of FMLA, for its push towards a non-traditional family model of a working mother and
also in the sense that the State Government mandates it and employers may choose whether or
not they will provide the leave to their staff. Additionally, those with this worldview would likely
oppose the proposed act created by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand due to the removal of additional
funds from each individuals paycheck, regardless of their own need for paid parental leave
(American Opportunity Agenda, 2013).

FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

The second group, the satisfied faction, believes that the changes to family policy provide
opportunity for female empowerment. To them, the family changes are proof that as women they
are adaptable to the new societal and financial conditions (Bogenschneider, 2014). The satisfied
faction would likely endorse the idea of paid parental leave, since it has been proven that the
overall health of children is improved when parents are financially able to stay at home during
the first few weeks of newborns lives (Earle et al., 2011). The outline of the satisfied factions
policy endorsements is focused on social programs that create support for women and their
equality. This group would likely majorly back the idea of social insurance schemes, which
reduce the likelihood of discrimination against females in the workplace by spreading the cost of
paid leave to all, and not requiring the specific business to produce funds for the individual
during their paid leave (Ray et al., 2008).
The last would be the impatient faction, which views this family change as long overdue
and lacking in family diversity (Bogenschneider, 2014). Those within this group believe that
policy changes need to both support and encourage cultural awareness, which is one of the
reasons they would back the idea of paid parental leave. Considering the that the United States is
the only country out of the 15 most fiscally competitive countries that does not have a federal
policy mandating paid leave to new parents provides evidence of the need of family support in
policy (Earle et al., 2011). Marci Ybarra discusses a major point that the impatient faction would
drive home would be that FMLA provides benefits to less than 50% of working women and 20%
of first time mothers (2013). Of those receiving the benefits, a large majority are those with
careers in higher earning businesses, meaning the low-income mothers are being neglected by
the policy.
Theory of Paradox

FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

With the use of the theory of paradox, which allows the use of compromise to gather the
strengths of individual viewpoints, we are able to create a stronger framework and in turn a
better family policy (Bogenschneider, 2014). In order to compromise on the family changes and
need for paid parental leave, we must combine the strongest points of the concerned, satisfied,
and impatient factions. Using the satisfied factions backing of it as a social program that supports
women and their rights, those in the concerned grouping may join the female empowerment
when it is mentioned that low-income families are falling apart due to a serious lack of financial
backing from FMLA. The impatient faction will agree on this in that the unpaid leave from
FMLA is deficient in supporting low-income mothers in their need for paid leave. A major point
by this faction will also be the need to meet the standards a majority of other countries have
already met in providing paid leave, which they have done following recommendations of the
International Labour Organization (Earle et al., 2011). All of these strong ideals and reasons to
back paid parental leave can combine to create not only a large number of supporters, but also a
enormous shift towards positive change in United States family policy.
Discussion
The push for paid parental leave is not a new idea, in fact, in a Presidential report in 1963
it was said that it should be provided to females in the labor force and businesses, leaders in the
union, and law makers should find a way to accomplish paid leave (Gault et al., 2014). Thirty
years after this comment was made the Family and Medical Act was enacted into law, and while
the policy was groundbreaking in terms of protecting jobs of individuals, the lack of paid leave
resulted in much criticism. In addition to this limitation, FMLA did little to provide benefits to
women of the low socioeconomic group, but instead strengthened the job security and possibility
of possible leave to those in higher income brackets (Ybarra, 2013). This neglect of lower

FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

income workingwomen was shown to lead individuals to quit their job if pregnancy leave was
not provided, and thus a intended career break was forced. Tomika Greer (2013) reports that it is
common from females leaving to the workplace to plan to return at some future point, but in a
phenomenon she calls off ramping and on-ramping (p. 41); there are many available chances to
step out of a career but few and far between to step back into a career where you left off.
It has been proven that those whom receive a maternity leave with pay are drastically
more likely to return to their previous employer post-birth (Earle et al., 2011). This should be a
large selling point to businesses in the United States, that creating policies that are malleable to
the demands of staff has numerous benefits, first of which being the reduction of cost of seeking
and training employees. In addition to the return of employees, companies see fiscal benefits of
paid leave due to the resulting improvement of staff moral, efficiency decline is non existent, and
overall it improves finances of employees and their family members (Gault et al., 2014).
The issue of paid parental leave has a multiple steps to go before it reaches the finish line,
but progress has been made thanks to a few individual steps in the right direction. On of the most
influential of the steps toward the goal, was in 2011 when President Barack Obama allocated $50
million grant to encourage states to implement more paid parental leave packages, which showed
the nation that the concept had support of their leader (Ybarra, 2013). Secondly, Senator Kirsten
Gillibrand of New York created the FAMILY Act which was to create a self-governing trust,
funded by both employees and employers available to every individual in the country no matter
their current status (American Opportunity Agenda, 2013). Combining the precedent set by the
two of these, as well as others that have followed in their footsteps, the nation is making progress
towards parental leave policy.

FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

As discussed here, and in research, there are many benefits to paid family leave;
including job stability for both employee and employer, improved prosperity of families and
their children, and the financial advancement of businesses and the nation as a whole. It is my
hope that within the next 20 years I see a paid parental leave policy signed into law. As a country,
we lean towards individualism while also pointing a finger at our leaders for not better
supporting us. The implementation of this concept allows the costs of raising a child to be
distributed throughout the system, while establishing trust within the family unit.

References
American opportunity agenda (pp. 2-8). (2013). New York: Office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

Bogenschneider, K. (2014). Bridging Controversy and Building Consensus: The Theory of

Paradox. In Family policy matters: How policymaking affects families and what
professionals can do (3rd ed., pp. 191-222). New York, NY: Routledge.
Earle, A., Mokomane, Z., & Heymann, J. (2011). International perspectives on work-family
policies: Lessons from the world's most competitive economies. Future of Children,
21(2), 191-200.
Gault, B., Hartmann, H., Hegewisch, A., Milli, J., & Reichlin, L. (2014). Paid parental leave in
the United States. Institute for Women's Policy Research, 1-33.
Greer, T. (2013). Facilitating successful re-entries in the United States: Training and development
for women returners. New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource
Development, 25(3), 41-61.
Mejeur, J. (2013, December 1). State family and medical leave laws.
Meisenheimer, J. (1989). Employer provisions for parental leave. Monthly Labor Review, 20-24.
Ray, R., Gornick, J., & Schmitt, J. (2008). Parental leave policies in 21 countries: Accessing
generosity and gender equality. Center for Economic and Policy Research, 1-22.

Ybarra, M. (2013). Implications of paid family leave for welfare participants. Social Work
Research, 37(4), 375-387.