Family, Medical & Sick Leave

The United States is the only industrialized nation that fails to provide paid family leave with a guarantee right to return to work.  The only federal right that some private-sector workers have is to unpaid family and medical leave, provided under the Family and Medical Leave Act.  Three states (CA, NJ, and WA) have passed family leave laws that require some form of paid leave, and three cities (Milwaukee, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.) have enacted paid sick day laws.  In all other parts of the country, workers who are fortunate enough to be represented by unions can rely on their unions to negotiate these benefits on their behalf, while workers without unions can only hope their employers provide paid leave benefits voluntarily. 

Far from being a leader, the United States falls far behind other countries when it comes to paid family, medical and sick leave.  Of the 173 countries surveyed for a 2007 study from The Project of Global Working Families and the Institute for Health and Social Policy: 

• 97 percent had paid maternity leave requirements, with more than half (56.6 percent) providing for paid leave of 14 or more weeks;
• 38.2 percent had paid paternity leave requirements, with 17.9 percent providing for paid leave of 14 or more weeks; and
• 83.8 percent had paid sick day requirements, and 73.4 percent provided for at least one week of paid sick days each year.

There are more than 400 million workers (representing nearly 40 percent of all private-sector workers) in the United States do not have paid sick days.  Lower-paid workers are especially vulnerable:  Nearly four out of five (79 percent) private-sector workers in the bottom quartile of earnings do not have employer-provided paid sick leave.  In contrast, only 28 percent of private-sector workers in the top quartile of earnings do not have employer-provided paid sick leave.