Take It or Leave It

In Part 2 of Take It or Leave It’s deep dive into Maine’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program, host Josh Seidman reconnects with Sarah Brydon to explore the nuanced issues shaping implementation. They break down key topics such as job protection, the program’s unique undue hardship provision, and what employers need to know about employee notice and operational planning. The episode also covers...

Host Josh Seidman welcomes Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) Claims Administration Division Director, Sarah Brydon, for a timely conversation on the rollout of Maine’s PFML program, which went live and began paying benefits to eligible employees in May 2026. Drawing on her experience helping build the program from the ground up, Sarah walks through key milestones and operational decisions...

In Part Two of this two-part series, Josh Seidman and Dillon Clair shift their focus beyond Virginia to examine the broader national landscape of paid leave and leave of absence legislation in 2026. The discussion highlights activity and developments in states like Hawaii, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, where momentum continues to build through evolving proposals, amendments, and ongoing legislative...

In the first episode of 2026, Take It Or Leave It host Josh Seidman is joined by Dillon Clair of the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) to unpack the latest developments shaping the paid leave landscape. Together, they explore how Virginia emerged as a focal point this year, enacting both paid family medical leave and paid sick and safe leave laws after years of legislative momentum and prior vetoes....

AI’s growth continues unabated, with AI agents embedding in workplaces and seeking to make life easier across industries. To explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping leaves of absence and disability administration, host Josh Seidman sits down with Angie Brown, Strategic Sales Director at Ushur. Together, they navigate the evolution of technology in this space and discuss how new solutions...

For this forward-looking episode, host Josh Seidman continues the conversation with Bryon Bass, CEO of the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC), focusing on the ethical and regulatory dimensions of AI in the world of leave management and workplace accommodations. Together, they explore the importance of establishing guardrails to ensure AI technologies are used responsibly, transparentl...

In this episode of Take It or Leave It, host Josh Seidman kicks off a two-part series exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence and management of leaves of absence and accommodations. He’s joined by Bryon Bass, CEO of the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC), for a timely and thought-provoking conversation about how AI is already reshaping – and will continue to reshape – th...

In this episode of Take It or Leave It, host Josh Seidman sits down again with Jim Jantz from Marsh McLennan Agency to explore how lawmakers and employers are expanding their leave requirements and offerings to go beyond the status-quo to provide more benefits that meet the needs of today’s workforce. From state and local statutory developments like paid leave laws that cover pregnancy loss, or ed...

In this episode of Take It or Leave It, host Josh Seidman sits down with Jim Jantz, a leave and disability compliance expert from Marsh McLennan Agency, to explore the critical role managers play in navigating employee leaves and accommodations. From recognizing the signs of a potential FMLA request to understanding when and how to escalate to HR or Legal, Josh and Jim discuss why proper manager t...

In this milestone 40th episode of Take It or Leave It, host Josh Seidman dives into the 2024 SHRM Employee Benefits Survey with special guest Daniel Stunes, researcher and manager of data monetization for SHRM. Together, they unpack key data and trends from SHRM’s comprehensive annual report, which spans everything from paid parental leave and PTO to flexible work policies and emerging benefit cat...

In this second episode of our Take It or Leave It two parter, host Josh Seidman explores how Connecticut Paid Leave, the state’s paid family medical leave (“PFML”) mandate, handles complicated standards like coordination of state-mandated PFML with employer-provided paid leave policies, and navigating the ins and outs of private plan compliance. Special guest Erin Choquette, CEO of the Connecticut...

In this first episode of a Take It or Leave It two-parter, host Josh Seidman takes a deep dive into Connecticut Paid Leave, the state’s mandatory paid family medical leave (“PFML”) program. As more states prepare to launch their own mandatory PFML programs in 2026—including Delaware, Maryland, Maine, and Minnesota—it’s critical to examine how existing programs are evolving. Sitting down with Josh...

In this episode, host Josh Seidman sits down with Christina Meddin to explore the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and its requirements for employers to provide reasonable accommodations to workers with pregnancy-related limitations. Together, they unpack the law’s broad coverage, and discuss practical steps employers can take when seeking to comply with the PWFA. This episode highlights essen...

Last month, Michelle Feit and Jesse Matton from the National Partnership for Women & Families sat down with host Josh Seidman on Take It or Leave It Episode 35 to discuss, among other topics, paid leave benchmarking initiatives and the latest involving Paid Leave at the federal level. But as anyone who tracks paid leave developments as closely as Olympic medal counts knows, much of the change in t...

Every four years, the Olympics captivates the nation with thrilling achievements and stunning successes in competitive athletics. There might not be medals involved, but the world of paid leave has seen its own share of riveting developments recently, including new initiatives, expanded types of leave, and advanced benchmarking tools. To take a deep dive into some of the latest leave-related activ...

Two years ago, in Episode 7 of Take It or Leave It, Rob Whalen joined the program to discuss alternative options employers can offer to their employees in terms of utilizing their earned, unused paid time off, and the flexibility afforded by his company, PTO Exchange. At the time, employers were still navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and response, and reacting to shifting employee priorities, incl...

At long last the EEOC has issued its final regulation and interpretive guidance on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), providing employers with additional insights on employee entitlements, employer responsibilities and agency enforcement under the Act. The final regulation’s effective date is less than one month away – June 18, 2024. Given that the PWFA is one of the biggest leave law devel...

The snow has finally stopped since Part 1 of our Congressional Developments series, and spring is just around the corner. We've made the time change to spring forward, and in this latest episode of Take It or Leave It we continue to explore how prospects for and activity surrounding federal paid leave are moving forward as well. In this episode host Josh Seidman is joined by Emma Zafran, Deputy Le...

Six months ago, in September 2023, the Oregon paid family and medical leave program, known as Paid Leave Oregon, officially went “live” and began providing benefits to eligible employees, which means it officially turns 6 months old in early March 2024. In that time, the program has had a major impact on employers and employees across the state, with Oregon providing paid leave benefits to tens of...

Winter's snow hasn't stopped yet, but 2024 is already proving to be a busy year for the paid family and medical leave landscape at the federal level. U.S. House and Senate members on both sides of the aisle continue to shine a national spotlight on the need to expand access to paid leave – and with that, comes opportunity for progress. To make sense of the recent developments, host Josh Seidman si...

2023 saw unprecedented change in the Leave Law landscape, with multiple states and localities enacting new leave laws and others rolling out major amendments that upended existing mandates. In this episode, host Josh Seidman looks back at the hottest developments from the last 12 months, and ahead to what leave activity may be lurking as we turn the corner to 2024. The episode begins with a 2023 w...

New Year’s 2024 is just around the corner, and with it comes a host of major new Paid Leave Law programs launching across the country. Perhaps most important is Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance (“FAMLI”) program, which officially begins providing benefits on January 1st. For an in depth look at this comprehensive and influential new program – the latest in a growing patchwork of state...

The many layers of the leave law world can sometimes feel, well endless. In this important episode of Take it or Leave It, we explore one specific layer of family and medical leave – disability and family leave as classes of insurance – that differs from but is interconnected with the paid family and medical leave mandates proliferating around the country (i.e., in Oregon with the Paid Leave Orego...

10 years ago to the day, we published our first “If Pain, Yes Gain” paid sick leave article. Over the last decade, this article series has grown to more than 110 parts, tracking the frequently evolving and constantly complicated web of paid sick leave mandates. Today, the country is filled with a myriad of paid sick leave laws of different types, durations, and criteria, and the changes show no si...

Effects of strong paid leave policies can be hard to quantify. Luckily, there’s an organization attempting to do just that, asking questions to examine how non-working “prime age” individuals really feel about paid family and medical leave, and where it ranks in their workplace priorities. To break this all down, host Josh Seidman is joined by Ben Gitis, Associate Director for Economic Policy at t...