Ohio family leave laws vary little from the federal FMLA. With the exception of a few military family provisions and some benefits offered to state employees, Ohio employees are governed by the federal Family Medical Leave Act in the event of sickness or injury.
The Ohio Military Family Leave Act
Additional provisions for leave time are granted under state law to those who have qualified family members serving in our military. A qualified family member could be a spouse, parent, child or former ward. The employer must also meet some requirements, mainly that they have to have 50 or more employees. If these conditions are met, an employee is eligible for up to 80 hours or 10 days of annual unpaid leave in the event that a qualified family member is injured while on active duty military service. To be eligible, the employee must have worked for the business for at least 12 months and worked a minimum of 1,250 hours in the 12 months preceding the leave.
Employees who take leave under the Ohio Military Family Leave Act may take no more than two weeks prior to their family member’s deployment date or one week after. Other requirements include the following:
- Employees must provide at least two weeks notice if taking leave when a family member is called to active duty.
- Employees must give at least two days notice prior to taking leave due to a family member’s injury or hospitalization. However, no notice is required if the injury is critical or life-threatening.
- Employees’ benefits must be continued during the leave, and employees must continue to make their contributions to insurance premiums.
- An employer may require employees to exhaust all other forms of leave before requesting military leave.
State Employees
Ohio offers its state employees parental leave that varies from the federal guidelines. Full-time state employees receive four work weeks of paid parental leave following the birth or adoption of a child, while part-time employees receive a pro-rated amount of paid leave. However, employees may not take more than six continuous weeks of parental leave.
Within this six-week period of parental leave, state employees will not receive pay for a 14-day waiting period. For the remaining four weeks, employees will receive 70 percent of their base pay rate. Accrued sick, personal or vacation leave may be used during the 14-day waiting period and to supplement the decreased rate of pay employees receive during parental leave.
Organ Donor Leave
In addition to their parental leave benefits, full-time state employees are offered leave time for organ donations. Up to 240 hours of paid leave is available to allow for healing time after surgery. State employees who make bone marrow donations can take up to 56 hours of paid leave.
