FAIR Leave Act Eliminates Combined FMLA Cap for Spouses Working at the Same Company

The new Fair Access for Individuals to Receive Leave Act (FAIR Leave Act) is short, sweet, and focuses on removing a specific restriction that has long frustrated married couples trying to balance work and family care under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

The Old Rule That Just Got the Boot

What this bill does is simple: it repeals Section 102(f) of the FMLA. If you’re not familiar with that specific subsection, here’s the translation: it was the rule that capped the total amount of FMLA leave that spouses working for the same employer could take together for certain reasons. Think of it like a shared bucket of time. If you and your spouse both worked at Acme Corp, and you needed time off for a new baby or to care for a seriously ill parent, that time had to be split between you, often limiting the total time the family could have off. For instance, if the maximum was 12 weeks, you might each only get six.

The FAIR Leave Act eliminates this combined cap entirely. The 12-week individual FMLA entitlement remains, but now, if you and your spouse work for the same company and qualify for FMLA, you can each take your full 12 weeks for a qualifying event (like the birth of a child), without running into that shared limit.

Real-World Impact: More Flexibility for Dual-Earner Families

This change is a big deal for families where both partners are employed by the same company—and there are more of those than you might think, especially in large companies, hospitals, school districts, or specialized industries. Previously, these families were penalized simply because of where they worked, forcing them to make tough choices about who took time off and when.

Under this new rule, a married couple working for the same large manufacturer, for example, could now potentially coordinate their full FMLA entitlements to provide care. If they have a new child, they could potentially arrange for 24 weeks of combined job-protected leave (12 weeks each) instead of being limited to 12 weeks total between them. This allows for significantly extended coverage during critical times, like the first few months with a newborn or during a long-term medical recovery.

For employers, this means they lose a mechanism that previously limited their exposure to simultaneous spousal leave. However, since the FMLA already requires employers to manage individual 12-week entitlements, the administrative change is minimal. The core impact is shifting the balance back toward employee flexibility and removing a restriction that primarily affected dual-earner households.