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New Laws for 2015: Parental Leave Law (Massachusetts)


Each state has a host of new employment and labor related laws that take effect in 2015.  This series focuses on several new laws from around the country that are of particular interest.  


Earlier this month, the outgoing Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, signed a bill into law that will establish parental leave in the state for both female and male employees. 

This amendment to the Massachusetts Maternity Leave Act ("MMLA") is groundbreaking in that prior to this amendment, the MMLA provided eight weeks of protected leave for only female employees for the birth or adoption of a child.  As a result of this amendment, however, the law is now "gender neutral", in a sense, as it grants male employees the same leave that female employees in the state have previously enjoyed.  Also of note, the new law applies to employers in the state with 6 or more employees.  (Contrast this Massachusetts law with the federal Family and Medical Leave Act which only provides for unpaid leave to care for a newborn for employees that work for businesses with 50 or more employees). 

While the new bill provides for additional changes to the MMLA, I believe this is the most groundbreaking change that readers would be interested in.  Note that this law will become effective April 7, 2015.


For additional information on the new law:  http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/01/new_law_gives_massachusetts_fa.html

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