Summary

In response to a congressional request, GAO revised its cost estimate for S.249, which would cover employees working for firms with 50 or more workers who had been with the firm for at least 1 year and worked 1,000 or more hours.

GAO estimated that: (1) the cost to employers for continued health benefits to workers on unpaid leave to care for new children would be $90 million annually; (2) about 840,000 women would be covered, and would take the full 10 weeks of leave available under the provision; (3) the annual cost to employers for continued health coverage for employees on unpaid leave to take care of seriously ill children would be about $10 million, with about 60,000 employees taking an average of 7.8 weeks leave; and (4) the health insurance cost to employers for employees on temporary medical leave would total about $47 million annually, with approximately 61,000 workers requiring 31 or more days of bed rest.