The Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC) and Spring Consulting Group (Spring) have partnered for the tenth year to conduct annual research on employer leave management. Our national survey tracks employer methods for administering both regulatory and non-regulatory leaves. It also offers a detailed view of employer preferences and strategies for managing and overcoming the many challenges of administering leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and overall leave management.

This year’s survey was released in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic — opening at the 2020 DMEC Virtual Annual Conference and closing on Dec. 31, 2020. It featured over 80 questions, including new questions related to plan design, and used a similar online format as prior years. The survey was completed by 793 employers who collectively represent all organizational sizes, U.S. states, and a broad range of industries.

This year’s report highlights trends and employer perspectives on regulatory leaves (e.g., FMLA, ADA), non-regulatory leaves (e.g., vacation, personal leave), and state paid leave programs. It also reviews practical application of return to work, accommodations, administrative processes, systems used to manage leave, staffing for insourced and outsourced programs, and underlying plans in place. It organizes responses into useful size segments and comments on differences by industry where notable.