Nationally recognized employee benefits attorney John Schembari was quoted in the Omaha World-Herald article “Wresting with paid leave: New moms in Nebraska government rely on co-workers to donate time.” The article, dated October 2, 2018, concerns leave donation programs and paid leave in the public and private sectors for new and expecting moms.

Leave donation programs are one of the solutions created to deal with paid parental leave, and though paid leave is viewed as a good thing, it is often challenging for small businesses. The article reports that federal law protects up to 12 weeks of leave both for men and women to care for a child, but pay isn’t required. Also of note, the State of Nebraska doesn’t currently have paid family leave time.

Mr. Schembari remarked that leave donation programs “are more common in state, or state-run, programs than in the private sector. Smaller employees don’t have the resources to offer it, and larger ones may worry about a negative perception if employees needed to rely on their colleagues’ donated time off.”

He goes on to say he “expect(s) the number of states and cities requiring employers to offer paid family leave to continue to increase, just as it has for paid sick leave.”

Read the Omaha World-Herald article