Military Spouses Can Get FMLA Leave After 90 Days of Work Under New Proposal

This proposed legislation makes a significant, targeted change to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the law that lets you take job-protected time off for family or medical reasons. Currently, to use FMLA, you generally need to have been with your employer for at least 12 months and worked 1,250 hours in the past year. This bill carves out a specific exception for spouses of active duty service members.

Under the new rule, if your spouse is on “covered active duty,” you would only need to have been employed by your current company for 90 calendar days to qualify for FMLA leave. This change is tucked into Section 1 of the bill and directly addresses the high mobility and unique demands placed on military families, making it much quicker for military spouses to access crucial time off when their partner's service requires it.

The Deployment Timeline Problem Solved

Think about the typical military family. They move frequently, meaning a spouse often has to leave a job and find a new one every few years. Under the current 12-month rule, if a service member gets deployed or transferred shortly after their spouse starts a new job, that spouse often can't access FMLA to handle urgent family matters, like arranging childcare, managing finances, or attending to military-related family needs. They might have to quit their job instead.

This bill shortens the waiting period from one year down to three months. This means if a military spouse starts a job in January and their partner is deployed in April, they are immediately eligible for job-protected leave under FMLA to manage the demands of active duty. This is a huge stability boost for families dealing with the unpredictable nature of military life, recognizing that their need for leave often doesn't wait for a 12-month anniversary.

What This Means for Employers

For most employers, this change is minor in scope. It applies only to a small, specific subset of employees: those who are spouses of active duty service members. While it does mean that employers might face a request for FMLA leave much earlier in an employee's tenure (after 90 days instead of 12 months), the overall administrative burden is low. Employers will need to adjust their FMLA eligibility tracking systems to recognize this new 90-day threshold for military spouses, likely requiring documentation to verify the service member's active duty status. However, the benefit of retaining skilled employees who are military spouses—a group often struggling with employment stability—likely outweighs the minor administrative adjustment.