Paid Family Leave in The United States
Since the passage of the United States' Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, paid family leave has grown as a political, social, and workers' rights issue, since the FMLA provides for only 12 weeks of unpaid family leave to workers that work at a business with 50 or more employees. The state of California enacted the first government-run Paid Family Leave program in the United States, though the program is funded entirely through the contributions of workers. In May 2007, the state of Washington enacted legislation providing paid family leave for bonding with and caring for new children; becoming the second state to pass paid family leave legislation. New Jersey also has established a paid leave program.
As of May 2007, no commercial insurer has offered any form of commercially available Family Leave Insurance that provides a source of income during unpaid family leaves, though two US patent applications have been filed for methods of providing such insurance.
Certain credit card issuers and other lenders have for years offered "credit protection" insurance that pays either minimum payments or interest only on the credit balances during certain "family leaves". These types of insurance are usually sold as "credit protection" or "credit score protection".
A 2002 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that approximately 30% of all large companies offer some level of paid family leave, though as a total of all employers this as a very low number.
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