Human Resource Blog

Average duration of FMLA

Have seen any data on the average duration of FMLA leave taken in a year?

This is an interesting question, and it partly depends upon how you define it. If you took the genuine average FMLA usage of all employees nationwide, it is less than 2 days of FMLA in any particular year. That is because only 58% of Americans work for an organization that is covered by FMLA, only 80% of employees at those organizations qualify for FMLA, and most of the qualfied employees do not have a new baby or a serious health condition in the family, in any given year. 88.3% of those who take leave are out for less than the allowable 12 weeks.

Of the covered and eligible employees, about 18.3% take at least one hour of FMLA per year. Statistically, employees younger than 25 or older than 64 are less likely to take FMLA. Of the entire workforce, 16.5% used FMLA in an 18-month period. More than half took leave for only 10-14 days.

The best data on FMLA comes from a U.S. Department of Labor survey that collected data for 18 months in  1999 and 2000. It was used to revamp the FMLA regulations in 2008 and 2009.  Read the full report here: http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/chapter1.htm