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Parental and medical leave management has grown increasingly complex. HR leaders navigate overlapping federal, state and employer policies beyond the Family and Medical Leave Act, a 1993 law granting eligible workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. One expert says many HR departments struggle with the rising administrative burden.
According to MetLife’s Missy Plohr-Memming, HR leaders often find themselves resource-strapped and, in many cases, lacking the infrastructure to streamline employee leave programs.
“Today, an employee taking parental or medical leave could qualify for up to five overlapping leave offers, including FMLA as well as state and employer-sponsored job protection or paid programs,” says Plohr-Memming, senior vice president of group benefits national accounts for the firm. Each of which comes with its own eligibility requirements, benefit calculations and administrative processes.
‘A patchwork of leave policies’
This resource crunch comes at precisely the wrong time, as the scope of leave management continues to expand, she says. Research from the National Partnership for Women & Families estimates that FMLA has been used more than 500 million times by workers needing time off to care for their own health or a family member’s. In 2024 alone, FMLA supported more than 15 million
