New Jersey Lawyer Blog
Balancing a job, child care, and elder care can seem like a daunting task. This is even more difficult for single parents and families dependent upon two incomes to make ends meet.
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) grants eligible employees of covered employers the right to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave in a year to care for a newborn and up to 26 weeks to care for a seriously ill family member; however, there are two problems in that statement: “eligible” and “unpaid.” Many employers are not covered by the act, and less than half of the nation’s workers are eligible. What’s more, many employees who do qualify for the unpaid leave cannot afford to take off from work without getting paid.
In April 2016 New York State made the news by becoming the fourth state to offer paid family leave. The other three, in chronological order, are California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. All four states built their programs on Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) programs already in place.