Paid Leave Principles
Businesses Align on Core Principles for National Paid Leave
Leading businesses understand the need for a national paid leave policy that meets people’s health and caregiving needs, no matter where they live or work. Business leaders, policymakers, advocates, and issue experts have come together to endorse key principles for a national paid leave program that would support today’s families and America’s large and small businesses alike.
A good plan is:
Universal, covering all working people across the United States, regardless of where they live or work
While some states have made progress and created paid family and medical leave programs that provide universal coverage to workers within those states, millions of people throughout the rest of the country still do not have access to paid leave.
All working people should have access to paid leave, regardless of the size of their employer, the nature of their work or their income level — and this includes part-time employees, self-employed people and sole proprietors.
A national policy will guarantee that everyone has access to paid leave when they need it and would make paid leave far more affordable for businesses of all sizes to provide.
Comprehensive and inclusive, addressing working people's caregiving and medical needs
Working people need comprehensive paid leave as reflected in the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): parental leave to welcome a new child, caregiving leave to care for a seriously ill, injured or disabled loved one, medical leave for a serious personal health condition, and for certain military caregiving and deployment purposes.
Parental leave should cover parents of new children, whether newborn, newly adopted, or newly placed for foster care. It should also cover all parents. Gender-neutral parental leave covers both moms and dads, opens up opportunities for growth and advancement for both women and men in the workplace, and promotes more sharing of responsibilities at home. It is also vital to families’ economic security and wellbeing, child and maternal health, greater paternal involvement, equity for LGBTQ families and greater workforce attachment and earnings, particularly for women who give birth.
Family caregiving leave is essential to ensure that working adults can support their loved ones in times of medical crisis, including their children in the years following birth. More than 40 million people provide unpaid care to family members, and many working adults are sandwiched between raising children and providing ongoing care to a loved one, such as an aging parent. As the population and workforce continue to age, this demand will grow. A paid leave program should build on the FMLA’s definition of family member to include a broader set of relationships that reflect the needs of today’s families, such as the one outlined in the FAMILY Act.
Personal medical leave ensures that working people can take needed time away from their job to care for their own serious illness, surgery, disability or injury while staying attached to the workforce and maintaining their economic stability. Over 50 percent of leave is taken to address serious health conditions, making it the most common reason for taking leave.
Military caregiving and deployment leave ensures that military service members’ families have the paid leave they need to meet their unique needs, whether caring for a wounded service member or making preparations for deployment.
Finally, in addition to the purposes outlined in the FMLA, a strong paid leave program also includes time off to address the effects of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.
Meaningful wage replacement, with a sufficient length of leave to meet people’s care and health needs
A paid leave program should replace a meaningful portion of a worker’s usual wages – enough to allow workers at all points on the pay scale to take the time they need without causing financial strain.
People also need a meaningful amount of time to care for a new child or address their own or a family member’s serious illness or injury. The Family and Medical Leave Act established a baseline standard of up to 12 weeks of leave, and evidence from a range of medical and caregiving needs shows that this is the minimum length needed to ensure all workers have enough time away from work when they need it. Importantly, data from state paid leave programs show that people only use the leave they truly need.
Secure so that workers are protected from losing their job or benefits or against retaliation
Employees who ask for or use paid family and medical leave should be protected from losing their job, retaliation or other adverse consequences at work. Employers should also continue to provide any group health insurance benefits while the employee is on leave.
All people should feel that they can take needed paid family and medical leave without fear of losing their job, or of discrimination or retaliation from an employer.
Currently, the FAMILY Act is the only proposed national legislation that meets these paid leave principles.
Many business supporters of paid leave have specifically endorsed this legislation as a strong, sustainable and significant solution to the paid leave crisis in the United States.
Please visit our resources page for more information about the case for a national paid family and medical leave policy and details about the FAMILY Act.
See what our business partners have to say
Find testimonials from business supporters advancing paid family and medical leave, including national companies, leading executives and small businesses from across the country.
Read our business leadership examples
See how businesses are making the case for national paid family and medical leave in creative and compelling ways, including customer engagement, public education, policy advocacy and more.