Creating a database for analysis of state statutes on family and medical leaves

The Foundation's program, Public Health Law Research: Making the Case for Laws That Improve Health, was designed to build the evidence for public health law and policy, translate research findings into practical tools to increase the support for and use of law by policy makers and public health practitioners, and to translate findings to other fields and venues to improve and protect health.This project will produce a scientific, legal dataset that will include information derived from state laws focused on family and medical leave. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides a basic set of protections for workers who are injured or ill, for new parents, and for workers who need to care for a family member. Family and medical leave access represents an essential element of worker, family, and population health. While there has been limited quantitative and qualitative analysis of the impact and utilization of the federal FMLA, very little attention has been paid to the content or outcomes associated with state family and medical leave laws. The researchers from Columbia University's Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies will quantify and code variables associated with accessibility of leave, types of leave-taking activity, and forms of legal remedy provided to leave-takers. Deliverables for this project include a legal dataset, codebook, protocol, and at least one paper publicizing the legal dataset.