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The report for the 2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) surveys that details the methods used to conduct the surveys.

Using data from the 2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Employee Survey, the paper explores patterns of needing and taking leave from work for a family or medical reason—either for one’s own health, or to care for someone else. The 2018 FMLA Employee Survey asks U.S. employees about their need for leave for a family or medical reason, whether they took leave, and their experiences while on leave—all for the twelve months prior to the survey. This paper begins by exploring patterns in needing and taking leave between women and men.

The executive summary of the 2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) surveys that summarizes the conduct of the 2018 surveys and major findings.

The brief uses data from the 2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Employee Survey to summarize findings on employee leave-taking rates and characteristics of leaves taken. The survey asked about family and medical leave, both for qualifying FMLA reasons and for care of non-immediate family members with serious health conditions (which does not typically qualify). Other medical reasons that are not serious health conditions, such as a sick day for a cold, are not included.

The methodology report appendices to the 2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) surveys that include employee survey materials, employer survey materials, revision matrices, nonresponse follow-up employee survey materials, and employer survey response option experiment (detailed findings).

The paper compares leave experiences of low-wage and non-low wage workers using data from the 2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Employee Survey. It finds that in some ways experiences are similar—both groups take needed leave at similar rates for similar reasons. In other ways experiences are very different and worse for low-wage workers—they less commonly have access to paid leave or are eligible for FMLA protections and more commonly face adverse financial and job consequences from taking leave.

The supplemental results from the 2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) surveys that provide key definitions and detailed survey results, including both more detailed information underlying exhibits presented in the technical report and additional exhibits not displayed in the technical report.

The brief uses data from the 2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Employee Survey and Worksite Survey to summarize findings on employee access to paid leave benefits, pay received while on leave for a family or medical reason, pay and unmet need for leave. It also describes variation in findings between states that do and do not offer paid family and medical leave.

The report of the 2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) surveys, presenting findings, including comparisons between worksites covered and not covered by FMLA, between employees eligible and ineligible for FMLA, and over time.

The brief uses data from the 2018 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Employee Survey to summarize findings on employee eligibility rates, reasons for ineligibility, differences in eligibility by employee characteristics, and knowledge of their own eligibility.

Workers who meet the legal definition of employees receive statutory protections such as minimum wage, overtime pay, and Unemployment Insurance coverage. Workers defined as self-employed forgo these protections as well as other employer-provided benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans. In order for workers to make informed choices between employment and self-employment, they need to understand how those rights and benefits vary with classification (i.e., employee vs. self-employed).

The report describes the methods used by Abt Associates in conducting the Worker Classification Knowledge Survey for the Department of Labor. The Worker Classification Knowledge Survey is a dual-frame telephone survey that measures American workers’ knowledge about their current job classification and their knowledge about the rights and benefits associated with their job status. Abt conducted this study in support of the U.S.

There is ongoing policy debate about employee classification; that is, who the law says should be classified as an employee and who should be classified as self-employed. But do workers themselves understand their current status? To explore whether workers understand their current status, a recent Abt Associates survey asked 8,503 workers for their (1) work status (employee or self-employed) and (2) what earnings documentation for tax purposes they received from their main job (W-2 or 1099-MISC). Earnings documentation alone is not definitive as to classification.

The document provides information related to the public use files (PUFs) of the Worker Classification Knowledge Survey. (Beyond what is contained in the technical report (Daley et al. 2016); no information from the semi-structured interviews is being released.) The survey instruments are included as Appendix A of the Methodology Report, and are also included in this document as Appendix B. The balance of this document proceeds as follows. Section 2 discusses steps to prevent disclosure. Section 3 provides sample code for analyzing the data using SAS.

Under contract from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Abt Associates conducted a survey of 8,503 workers on issues related to employee classification; i.e., whether those who by law are employees are being treated as self-employed (and vice versa). In addition, the study conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with employers and employer representatives. The report describes the survey which suggests that workers have an imperfect understanding of the implications of employment status.