Family leave

Microsoft has upped the ante on its already-enviable employee benefits package by adding paid leave for employees who need to take care of an ailing family member. According to recent research from the Northeast Business Group on Health and AARP, caregiving is among the top 10 employee health and wellness benefits priorities for employers, and most employers agree that in the next five years, caregiving is going to become an increasingly important issue among employees.

Professional services firm Deloitte made headlines last year when it unveiled its plan, offering employees up to 16 weeks of paid time off per year to look after a parent or family member as well as for the birth or adoption of a child. AARP also introduced a program under which its full- and part-time employees may request up to two regularly scheduled workweeks of paid time off per calendar year to assist a family member who is ill or needs physical or medical assistance. LĪ] Scott Frisch is executive vice president and chief operating officer at AARP in Washington, D.C.

[...]23% of employees are spending 41 hours or longer each week caring for a relative, according to a new report from the Northeast Business Group on Health. [...]65% of the insurance company’s employees or their relatives using the service received a changed diagnosis. While more than three in five workers in the United States are covered by the Family Medical Leave Act, which guarantees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, it isn’t possible for most caregivers to lose their salary.