Although FMLA
is an advancement, the act has numerous gaps. Research shows that
because the purpose of FMLA is to broadly aid all companies
equally, the government is not able to have full control of FMLA
and only establishes rules that dictates who eligible employees
are (citation). Therefore, not all workers are able to qualify for
this program; one has to be employed for at least 12 months in the
same company and work a minimum of 1,250 hours prior to approval
(The
United
StatesDepartment of Labor, 2017).
Specifically, researchers analyzed all the states on how well
the
governmentprotects company employees and awards each
statewith a
letter grade that best reflects government efforts in that state.
Consequently, because of the lack
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Since 1995, the
amount of companies who use FMLA has dropped drastically by almost
25.5% every five years (Waldfogel, 2001). According to Anthony
(2008), only 46% of employers are covered by FMLA, which leaves
more than 33.6 million individuals unprotected from losing their
jobs when they are on maternity leave. Even if by law the company
cant deny an individual FMLA if the employee meets both government
requirements (work at least a year and a minimum of 1,250 hours
with the company), the business can purposely delay when the
individual receives benefits and they may even ask the individual
to use their paid leave before final approval (source). The company
can also delay the individuals application by asking for a second
opinion from a doctor or request a medical certification and the
company is able to deny the application if the second option does
not agree that the leave is necessary (U.S. Department of Labor,
2015). As a result, this increases the amount of discrimination in
the workforce towards lower class employees. According to Gerstel
& McGonagle (1999), women who have higher salaries and can
afford to take the time off are most promising to qualify for FMLA,
and therefore, are more likely to spend time with their newborn.
Their study showed that middle class white mothers are most likely
to benefit from FMLA
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Businesses try
to maximize the employee's time in the company and often only allow
the mother to go on maternity leave until they are not able to work
at all due to their pregnancy. For example, in Alabama, an employee
must work until she is disabled as a result of pregnancy and even
then, the organization may require a doctors verification of
disability making it very difficult for mothers to have time off
while pregnant (Employment Law Headquarters, 2012). In way to
improve this, the government implemented tax benefits to
individuals that donated some of their sick days (up to 80 hours a
year) to other mothers, regardless if they do not live in the same
state, to increase their maternity leave days (HR Daily Advisor,
2016). Precisely, even though the donor can collectively give 80
hours, each recipient can only collect eight hours each. The
recipient must be employed for at least a year and exhaust all
their vacation and sick days, as well as provide a certification
from their physician before using donated hours (Georgia Institute
of Technology, 2015). Even then, if there a disability because of
the delivery or pregnancy, the individual is ineligible for the
donated
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