Working parents' eligibility and affordability for FMLA unpaid leave (percent) by race/ethnicity and nativity

diversitydatakids.org calculations of Current Population Survey, 2018-2022 March Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Public Use Microdata Files, IPUMS-CPS, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.

Inequitable access to FMLA continues

A parent is an adult aged 18 and older who reported having at least one of their own children (including biological, adopted or step-children) age 0-17 living in their household. A working parent is a parent who reported working at a job or business at any time during the previous calendar year (as of time of survey in each of the five years of the time period) including temporary, part-time or seasonal work even for a few days. A worker is estimated to be eligible for unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act if they meet FMLA eligibility criteria and work for an employer who also meets eligibility criteria. This indicator does not measure whether eligible workers actually take unpaid leave or not. Employment measures available in the CPS ASEC do not align exactly with FMLA eligibility criteria. To minimize overestimation of eligibility, we follow a similar estimation procedure outlined in the Department of Labor's 2018 Employee Survey, which differs slightly from the full FMLA criteria. Workers are eligible for and able to afford FMLA unpaid leave if 1) they are estimated to meet FMLA eligibility criteria and 2) their family's total resources does not fall below 200% of the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) after subtracting estimated lost wages from taking six or 12 weeks of unpaid leave under FMLA. Data used for calculating this indicator are drawn from surveys and are therefore subject to sampling variability; indicator values should be compared with caution.