Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon, whose district includes parts of South and Southwest Philadelphia, joined Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (IL-14) and Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) to introduce the Job Protection Act, new legislation to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to all U.S. workers.
The Job Protection Act would be the largest expansion of FMLA coverage in nearly 30 years and would expand FMLA protections to all employees, no matter the size of their employer or part-time status, and would shorten the timeline for employees to be eligible for coverage from one year to 90 days.
“All workers deserve paid family and medical leave. The expansion of FMLA coverage under the Job Protection Act will ensure any universal paid leave program is truly equitable and extends to the most vulnerable workers,” said Scanlon. “I am proud to support Representative Underwood and Senator Smith as they introduce the Job Protection Act.”
A fact sheet on the Job Protection Act can be found here. A list of the over 100 national, state, and local organizations that endorse the Job Protection Act, including paid leave advocates, women’s and labor rights organizations, labor unions, and small business organizations can be found here.
The Job Protection Act expands FMLA coverage to all workers and strengthens the law’s protections by: Expanding protections to those working for smaller employers by reducing the current FMLA coverage threshold from 50 employees to one employee. It also eliminates the requirement that a workplace have 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius, which currently excludes an estimated 33 million workers.
It protects part-time workers and those working multiple jobs by eliminating the requirement that an employee work 1,250 hours at a single workplace over the previous year. The hours requirement disproportionately impacts women — nearly two-thirds of part-time workers are women.
It also ensures that people changing jobs or returning to the workforce will be protected by reducing the amount of time they must have worked at their workplace from 12 months to 90 days. This requirement excludes more than one in five workers, and especially large shares of women (23.3%), Hispanic workers (25.5%), and Black workers (25.8%).
