My 20-year-old daughter has been put on bed rest because of her high-risk pregnancy. I am the only one available to care for her. Can I take FMLA leave for this reason?
Maybe. In order to take FMLA leave to care for your adult daughter, she must be incapable of self-care due to a disability and you must be needed to care for her because of a serious health condition. While any incapacity due to pregnancy will be a serious health condition for FMLA purposes, pregnancy itself is not a disability. However, pregnancy-related impairments may be considered disabilities if they substantially limit a major life activity.
If your daughter has a pregnancy-related impairment, such as pregnancy-related sciatica, that substantially limits one or more of her major life activities, such as walking or lifting, then she has a disability. If she is incapable of self-care due to that disability (e.g., she needs active assistance in cooking, cleaning, and shopping), then she qualifies as an adult daughter under the FMLA. In such circumstances, assuming you are an eligible employee, you will be able to take FMLA-protected leave if you are needed to care for her.
Compensation.BLR.com, now thoroughly reved with easier navigation and more complete compensation information, will tell you what’s being paid right in your state—or even metropolitan area—for hundreds of jobs. Try it at no cost and get a complimentary special report. Read more.
My 23-year-old son with Down syndrome lives with me and goes to a community resource program during the day. When he is ill, he must stay home and cannot be left alone. I am an FMLA-eligible employee. May I take leave if he is ill and cannot go to his daytime program?
Yes, if your son requires active assistance or supervision to provide self-care in at least three ADLs or IADLs because of his disability and his illness meets the definition of a “serious health condition” under the FMLA.
My 40-year-old daughter has cerebral palsy. Can I assume her condition meets the definition of a serious health condition and that I can take FMLA leave to care for her?
The determination of whether an impairment qualifies as a serious health condition must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and can vary between individuals with the same disability. While cerebral palsy is recognized to be a disability, your daughter must also be incapable of self-care because of her disability and her need for care must result from a serious health condition as defined in the FMLA.
My adult daughter has a disability, epilepsy, which is controlled by medication. Can I take FMLA leave to care for her if she is admitted to a hospital overnight for observation due to a car accident?
No. Although your daughter has a disability, she is not currently incapable of self-care because of that disability. Her ability to care for herself (i.e., her ability to independently perform activities of daily living) means she does not qualify as a “daughter” for leave purposes under the FMLA. Even if your daughter suffers from a brief period of incapacity and receives inpatient care for a night due to the car accident and therefore has a serious health condition under the FMLA, you would not be entitled to FMLA leave to care for her as she does not meet the FMLA definition of a “daughter.”
From FMLA to incentive plan design, compensation and benefits are full of challenges. “Maintain internal equity and external competitiveness and control turnover, but still meet management’s demands for lowered costs.” Heard that one before?
Many of the professionals we serve find helpful answers to all their compensation and benefits questions at Compensation.BLR.com®, BLR’s comprehensive compensation website.
And there’s great news! The site has just been revamped in two important ways. First, compliance focus information has been updated to include the latest on COBRA, Lilly Ledbetter, and the FMLA. Second, user features are enhanced to make the site even quicker to respond to your particular needs, such as:
- Topics Navigator—Lets you drill down by topical areas to get to the right data fast.
- Customizable Home Page—Can be configured to display whatever content you want to see most often.
- Menu Navigation—Displays all the main content areas and tools that you need in a simple, easy format.
- Quick Links—Enables you to quickly navigate to all the new and updated content areas.
The services provided by this unique tool include:
- Localized Salary Finder. Based on reliable research among thousands of employers, here are pay scales (including 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles) for hundreds of commonly held jobs, from line worker to president of the company. The data are customized for your state and metro area, your industry, and your company size, so you can base your salaries on what’s offered in your specific market, not nationally.
Try BLR’s all-in-one compensation website, Compensation.BLR.com®, and get a complimentary special report, Top 100 FLSA Overtime Q&As, no matter what you decide. Find out more.
- State and Federal Wage-Hour and Other Legal Advice. Plain-English explanations of wage-hour and other compensation- and benefits-related laws at both federal and state levels. “State” means the laws of your state, because the site is customized to your use. (Other states can be added at a modest extra charge.)
- Job Descriptions. The website provides them by the hundreds, already written, legally reviewed, and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandate that essential job functions be separated from those less critical. All descriptions carry employment grade levels to current norms—another huge time-saver.
- Merit Increase, Salary, and Benefits Surveys. The service includes the results of three surveys a year. Results for exempt and nonexempt employees are reported separately.
- Daily Updates. Comp and benefits news updated daily (as is the whole site).
- “Ask the Experts” Service. E-mail a question to our editors and get a personalized response within 3 business days.
If we sound as if we’re excited about the program, it’s because we are. For about $3 a working day, the help it offers to those with compensation responsibilities is enormous.
This one’s definitely worth a look, which you can get by clicking the link below.
Click here to get more information or start a no-cost trial and get a complimentary special report!