FMLA

What It Means

FMLA stands for the Family and Medical Leave Act, the federal law that lets an eligible employee of a covered employer take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period. The Department of Labor lists the reasons: the birth of a child and bonding with the newbornNewbornA baby in the first 28 days of life, the stage doctors also call the neonatal period. See more, a child placed for adoption or foster care, caring for a spouse, child or parent with a serious health condition, or the employee's own serious health condition. During the leave, the employer has to keep group health coverageHealth insuranceA plan you pay a premium for that covers part of your medical costs, while you pay your own share through a deductible, copays and coinsurance. See more going on the same terms as if the employee were still at work.

How People Say It at Work

• "I'm going out on FMLA after the baby comes."
• "HR says I don't qualify for FMLA until next spring."
• "Can I take FMLA a few days at a time for my dad's treatments?"

The Breakdown

Worked example. Dana has worked at a hospital for 14 months, logged 1,600 hours over the past year, and the hospital has 120 employees within 75 miles of her worksite. Her baby is due in March.

Dana can take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave for the birth and to bond with the baby, her job is protected, and her group health coverage continues on the same terms. If she had already used 4 weeks of FMLA leave for her own health earlier in the same 12-month period, she'd have 8 left.

What the result means. Meeting all three tests means the law can apply to you; it doesn't mean the leave is paid. The FMLA itself pays nothing, so many families plan the weeks around savings, any paid leave the employer offers and a state program if there is one. Only military caregiver leave reaches 26 workweeks, and only within a single 12-month period.

Good to Know

The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division runs the FMLA and publishes Fact Sheet #28 and an FMLA FAQ that cover eligibility, notice and the employer's duties. Employers can measure the 12-month period in different ways, and Fact Sheet #28H explains the options, so ask HR which one yours uses before you plan dates. Your state may have its own family or medical leave law that adds to the federal one; check your state labor department and your employee handbook, and talk to an employment lawyer if your case is unusual.

Related Terms and Categories

• Sick leave

  Time off work an employer allows when you're ill, injured or caring for your health, paid or unpaid depending on the employer's policy and state or local law.

• Returning to work after baby

  The move back to a job after parental leave, which brings new childcare costs, a pumping plan for some parents, and federal rights worth knowing before day one.

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