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Work and Family Project
NELP’s Work and Family Project seeks to enforce existing laws and expand their protections to allow today’s workers to better balance the growing responsibilities of work with their family and medical needs.
Too often, low-wage working families find themselves unemployed when they take time off to care for a newborn child or a seriously-ill family member, when they are abused by a spouse, when they are unable to secure suitable child care, or when they themselves are temporarily ill or injured. Enacted in 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows eligible workers to maintain their jobs for up to 12 weeks while attending to many of their family and medical needs. However, the law only requires employers to provide unpaid leave, thus leaving most without any protection because they cannot afford to leave their jobs without pay. NELP’s Work and Family Project seeks to enforce the rights of workers to take the leave available under FMLA while also advocating for policy reforms that provide the income necessary for most working families to take advantage of the federal law.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees workers the right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a new or seriously-ill family member (including themselves). However, the true impact of the law is determined by how the FMLA is interpreted by the courts and the U.S. Department of Labor, the federal enforcement agency. Thus, in 1996, NELP published the first guide for employee advocates on how to enforce the rights of working families to FMLA’s protections. The FMLA Guide and other NELP resources are available to assist workers and their advocates to take advantage of the leave guaranteed by the federal law.
Most workers (78 percent) who are eligible for a leave under FMLA cannot afford to take unpaid leave for extended periods. As a result, they are forced to continue working while compromising the urgent needs of their family or their own serious medical condition. Working in collaboration with advocates and policy makers, NELP has actively promoted alternative policies that provide paid family leave in the states and at the federal level. NELP resources are available documenting those policies that expand the protections of FMLA by providing paid family and medical leave.
In many states, key policies have been adopted as part of the unemployment insurance system to adapt to the needs of today’s working families. For example, many states provide unemployment benefits to workers who are forced to leave their jobs because of domestic violence. Other states provide additional unemployment benefits (a “dependent allowance”) for workers who also care for sick or minor family members. NELP resources, including model state legislation, are available documenting the full range of unemployment insurance reforms designed to better meet the needs of today’s working families.
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