It may not be a huge surprise for California HR professionals, but recent research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) shows that employers in California are ahead of the national average when it comes to paid family leave policies. Much of this trend is driven by state and local laws.
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Nationwide, 18% of employers offer paid family leave benefits; in California, 35% of employers do, according to state survey results released July 27.
In the organization’s national benefits survey, released earlier this year, employers’ definitions of “family leave” varied. Many employers offered a combined family leave bank for maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, foster child leave, and leave to care for an immediate family member as defined by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Others included surrogacy leave and leave to care for an extended family member beyond FMLA’s definition.
The state survey also found that employers in California are more likely to offer stand-alone paid sick leave, vacation, maternity, paternity, and adoption banks. It’s hard to tell exactly where California stands, however, because the popularity of these stand-alone benefits means that employers in California are less likely to offer combined paid time off (PTO) programs. Nationwide, 51% of employers offer a combined bank of paid sick leave, vacation, and personal time. In California, only 38% of employers offer that benefit.
“We found that stand-alone PTO plans are more common in California compared with overall U.S. companies,” said Evren Esen, director of workforce analytics at SHRM, in a press release. “California has multiple leave laws at the state and local level that makes it unique compared with other parts of the U.S.”
Among the different types of paid leave that California employers were less likely to offer were time off for volunteer work and military or jury duty leaves beyond what is required by law.
SHRM said the California survey was conducted during January and February and polled 385 randomly selected SHRM members in the state. The nationwide data came from SHRM’s annual benefits survey.