(Candice Evers for WPLN and KFF Health News)<\/p>\n
Jill Woodrow reached a tipping point as a caregiver when her mom began struggling to communicate information about her latest doctor appointments.<\/p>\n
Woodrow\u2019s mother, a uterine cancer survivor, was seeing specialists to get to the bottom of several new, concerning symptoms. \u201cWhen she would try to tell us about what happened or what the conversation was, she couldn\u2019t remember,\u201d Woodrow said.<\/p>\n
So Woodrow, a school therapist, started taking her mom to medical appointments. Woodrow was able to ask doctors questions and explain their answers. But it was difficult to juggle her mom\u2019s medical care while working, raising three daughters, and coordinating with her husband\u2019s work schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was having to leave work early, take sick time, personal time,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of a sudden, my best friend said to me, \u2018Jill, have you ever thought about taking FMLA?\u2019 And honestly, I never did.\u201d<\/p>\n
FMLA refers to leave protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act<\/a>, a federal law that guarantees employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for their own serious health condition or to care for a parent, spouse, or child with a serious medical condition.<\/p>\n During eight weeks away from work, Woodrow helped with her mom\u2019s medical care, cooked meals, and helped with housework. Her mom was later diagnosed with breast cancer and died in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cTaking FMLA really helped me focus on my family and my mom, and it was honestly the best thing that I could have ever done,\u201d she said. \u201cI have no regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n But navigating the intricacies \u2014 logistical and emotional \u2014 of this federal policy can be challenging. Here\u2019s what to know.<\/p>\n 1. Read the fine print<\/strong>.<\/p>\n When FMLA was passed in 1993, it was groundbreaking, said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families. Before then, there were no federal protections for employees who needed to take time off for medical reasons.<\/p>\n Roughly 60% of workers in the U.S. qualify to take FMLA<\/a>, according to the Department of Labor. To be eligible, people must have worked for a company with 50 or more employees for at least a year. Within that time, employees must have worked at least 1,250 hours, which translates to working full-time for about seven months.<\/p>\n Keep in mind, FMLA applies only to caregiving if your child, spouse, or parent is facing a \u201cserious medical condition,\u201d like inpatient care or continuing treatment. If you need to take time from work to care for someone with a short-term illness or routine medical care, you will likely need to use sick leave or some other kind of paid time off. And FMLA generally does not apply to caring for in-laws, siblings, or close friends.<\/p>\n 2. Getting paid on FMLA is possible \u2014 but far from guaranteed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The federal law requires employers only to provide unpaid leave, which limits how many people consider FMLA. According to the Department of Labor, two-thirds of eligible employees said they wouldn\u2019t take FMLA because they could not afford<\/a> to go without pay.<\/p>\n However, some people can still get a paycheck while taking FMLA. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia<\/a> now require employers to provide paid family leave programs. Alternatively, you can apply another form of paid time off, like paid vacation or sick leave, to the time you take away from work. This is called concurrent leave. Some employers require employees to apply any available leave they have during the time they\u2019re taking FMLA, which in practice ensures that employees do not take more than the protected 12 weeks of leave within a year.<\/p>\n So why use FMLA instead of just taking PTO or stringing together sick days? Under the federal requirements, FMLA protects an employee\u2019s job and healthcare, which is not the case for other kinds of leave.<\/p>\n 3. Communicating clearly about leave with your employer is key<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In a 2018 survey conducted by the Department of Labor, one-third of FMLA-eligible employees shared that they avoided taking leave because they feared losing their job or being treated differently at work, or because they considered their work too important.<\/p>\n Woodrow had to navigate her own hesitation. \u201cI have a lot of students on my caseload, and I felt so guilty about leaving them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But FMLA advocate Frye said employees should remember that FMLA exists to help them \u201ctake the time that they need to support their families \u2014 and not feel like they have to pretend like that\u2019s not a natural part of life. Because it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Frye suggests employees be proactive when approaching their manager about planning a leave. \u201cI\u2019d say, \u2018I want to work with you to make this work for everybody,\u2019\u201d she said. In that conversation, employees could also offer to support their manager or other co-workers when those colleagues face a caregiving need in the future. Doing so could help shift a workplace culture to be more accepting of caregiving realities and FMLA leave over time, Frye added.<\/p>\n People and Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n The Family and Medical Leave Act<\/a> has had no major updates since it was passed in 1993, although there have been modifications to the leave options available to military service members and their families. A recent survey<\/a> from the Pew Research Center found that 69% of Americans support the federal government requiring employers to provide paid family leave for caregiving for an aging family member.<\/p>\n Emily Siner at Nashville Public Radio contributed to this report.<\/p>\n HealthQ is a health series from reporters Cara Anthony and Blake Farmer, approachable guides to an unapproachable healthcare system. It\u2019s a collaboration between Nashville Public Radio and KFF Health News.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/news\/healthq-fmla-caregiving-family-leave\/”>article<\/a><\/a>; first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org”>KFF<\/a> Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative<\/a> Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2023\/04\/kffhealthnews-icon.png?w=150"<\/a>; style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n
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