Employee Benefits Blog

The Family Medical Leave Act and Benefit Plans: What comes first – the Law or the Employer’s Established Policy?

An employer that employs 50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year is subject to the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”). Therefore, often when I am reviewing an employee benefits plan or policy I flag language that states something like: […]

July 24, 2018 | 2 min read | Tagged: coverage, family leave, FMLA, group health plan, leave

AB

Allison B. Bans Counsel

State of Celebration Standard Now in Effect for FMLA

In a previous blog, I wrote about regulations issued by the Department of Labor (“DOL”) proposing to revise the regulatory definition of “spouse” under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) to be based on the law of the place where a marriage was performed, which is known as the “state of celebration” standard.  The […]

April 3, 2015 | 1 min read | Tagged: DOL, FMLA, same-sex marriage, spouse, United States v. Windsor

KH

Kevin Hogan Former Associate

FMLA to Apply to All Employees in Same-Sex Marriages

When the U.S. Supreme Court declared DOMA unconstitutional in United States v. Windsor, many federal benefits that were previously denied to individuals in same-sex marriages became available to those individuals.  However, job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) was not one of them. Generally, an employee is able to take 12 weeks […]

June 30, 2014 | 2 min read | Tagged: DOL, DOMA, FMLA, proposed regulations, same-sex marriage

KH

Kevin Hogan Former Associate