Ohio’s family leave laws differ little from the federal FMLA. With the exception of a few military family provisions and some benefits offered to state employees, Ohio employees are governed by the federal Family Medical Leave Act for Sickness and Injury.

The Ohio Military Family Leave Law

Additional provisions for time off are granted under state law to those who have qualified family members serving in our military. A qualifying family member could be a former spouse, parent, child, or ward. The employer must also meet some requirements, mainly that it must have 50 or more employees. If these conditions are met, an employee is eligible for up to 80 hours or 10 days of annual unpaid leave in the event a qualifying family member is injured while on active military duty. To be eligible, the employee must have worked for the company for at least 12 months and have worked a minimum of 1,250 hours in the 12 months prior to leave.

Employees taking leave under the Ohio Military Family Leave Law may take no more than two weeks before their family member’s deployment date or one week after. Other requirements include the following:

• Employees must give at least two weeks’ notice if they take leave when a family member is called to active duty.
• Employees must give at least two days’ notice before taking leave due to injury or hospitalization of a family member. However, notification is not required if the injury is critical or life-threatening.
• Employee benefits must continue during the leave and employees must continue to make their contributions to insurance premiums.
• An employer may require employees to exhaust all other forms of leave before applying for military leave.

State employees

Ohio offers its state employees paternity leave that varies from federal guidelines. Full-time state employees receive four workweeks of paid parental leave after the birth or adoption of a child, while part-time employees receive a prorated amount of paid leave. However, employees may not take more than six continuous weeks of parental leave.

Within this six-week parental leave period, state employees will not receive pay for a 14-day waiting period. For the remaining four weeks, employees will receive 70 percent of their base pay. Accrued sick, personal or vacation leave can be used during the 14-day waiting period and to supplement the reduced rate of pay employees receive during paternity leave.

Organ donation license

In addition to their parental leave benefits, full-time state employees are offered organ donation leave time. Up to 240 hours of paid leave is available to allow for healing time after surgery. State employees who donate bone marrow can take up to 56 hours of paid leave.