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Fact Check: Are days covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) paid?

May 2, 2025•by TruthOrFake
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VERDICT
False

# Are Days Covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Paid? ## Introduction The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a significant piece of...

Are Days Covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Paid?

Introduction

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a significant piece of legislation in the United States that allows eligible employees to take leave for specific family and medical reasons. A common question surrounding this act is whether the days covered under FMLA are paid. This article will explore the nuances of this claim, drawing from various sources to present a comprehensive overview without reaching a definitive conclusion.

What We Know

  1. FMLA Overview: The FMLA entitles eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for specific family and medical reasons, such as the birth of a child or caring for a seriously ill family member. During this leave, employees are entitled to have their group health benefits maintained as if they were still working 123.

  2. Unpaid Leave: According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the FMLA provides unpaid leave, meaning that employees are not compensated during this time. However, employees may choose to use accrued paid leave (such as vacation or sick leave) concurrently with their FMLA leave 46.

  3. State Variations: Some states, like Washington D.C., have enacted their own paid family leave laws that provide wage replacement during leave. For example, the D.C. Paid Leave Act allows eligible employees to receive paid leave for certain family and medical reasons 510.

  4. Employer Policies: Employers may have their own policies regarding paid leave, which can affect how FMLA leave is taken. Employees may be able to use paid leave in conjunction with FMLA leave if their employer's policy allows it 89.

Analysis

The claim that FMLA days are paid requires careful scrutiny of the available information:

  • Federal Regulations: The primary sources from the U.S. Department of Labor consistently state that FMLA leave is unpaid. This is a critical point, as it establishes the baseline understanding of FMLA provisions 123. However, the option to use accrued paid leave complicates the narrative, as it allows for a potential overlap where employees can receive pay while on FMLA leave.

  • State-Specific Laws: The existence of state laws providing paid family leave introduces variability. For instance, D.C.'s Paid Leave Act allows for paid leave, which is separate from FMLA but can be utilized by employees who qualify under both laws 5. This highlights the importance of considering local regulations when discussing the issue of paid leave.

  • Employer Discretion: The ability of employees to use paid leave during FMLA leave is contingent upon employer policies. Some employers may have generous leave policies that allow for paid leave during FMLA, while others may strictly adhere to the unpaid nature of FMLA 68. This variability can lead to confusion and differing experiences among employees.

  • Source Reliability: The U.S. Department of Labor is a credible source, as it is the federal agency responsible for enforcing labor laws, including the FMLA. However, sources that discuss state-specific laws or employer policies may vary in reliability based on their origin and potential biases. For example, articles from advocacy groups may emphasize the need for paid leave without providing a balanced view of the current legal framework.

Conclusion

Verdict: False

The claim that days covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) are paid is false. The FMLA explicitly provides for unpaid leave, as confirmed by multiple sources from the U.S. Department of Labor 123. While employees may utilize accrued paid leave concurrently with their FMLA leave, this does not change the fundamental nature of FMLA as an unpaid leave entitlement.

It is important to note that some states have enacted their own paid family leave laws, which can provide wage replacement during leave. However, these state laws operate independently of the FMLA and do not alter the federal statute's provisions regarding unpaid leave 510. Additionally, employer policies may vary, allowing for the possibility of paid leave during FMLA, but this is not a requirement under the law 68.

The evidence supporting this conclusion is robust, primarily stemming from federal regulations. However, there are limitations to consider, particularly regarding the variability of state laws and employer policies, which can create confusion for employees. Therefore, while the verdict is clear, readers should remain aware of the nuances and variations that may apply in specific circumstances.

As always, it is advisable for individuals to critically evaluate information and consult relevant legal resources or professionals to understand their rights and options under both federal and state laws.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave (FMLA). Link
  2. U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave Act. Link
  3. U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions. Link
  4. U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) 12-Week Entitlement. Link
  5. Government of the District of Columbia. DC Paid Family Leave. Link
  6. U.S. Department of Labor. Employment Law Guide - Family and Medical Leave. Link
  7. USAGov. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Link
  8. Catholic University of America. Family and Medical Leave Policy. Link
  9. U.S. Department of Labor. Paid Leave. Link
  10. Center for American Progress. The State of Paid Family and Medical Leave in the U.S. in 2024. Link

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Fact Check: Carney has massive direct ties to Trump and Elon Musk. 1. Carney moved Brookfield asset management to NY only 6 days after Trump imposes tariffs. This makes Trump happy. 2. Carney will not get rid of bill C69 which is no new pipelines in Canada. So this means most of our oil and gas continues to go to Trump in the US. We need to be independent. Again siding with Trump, Trump is very happy. 3. Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner was in financial trouble and Carney’s company Brookfield signed a 99 year lease on his property at 666 fifth ave for 1.1 billion with all funds up front (unheard of terms) this cements Trumps admiration for Carney and Carney is now considered family. 4. Carney had Brookfield asset management bail out Elon Musk (Twitter) when he had the big buyout. This is Trumps best buddy and considers Carney also a big business partner with him now. 5. Trump publicly stated that he prefers dealing with the liberals as they never say anything bad about him but Pierre stands up for Canada and says Canada will never be the 51st state and he doesn’t like that. Trump says he wants to deal with Carney. 6. Carney has used off shore banking to hide Brookfields income and owes 5.3 billion to the government over the last 15 years. The address for the account in Bermuda is a bike shop. Carney says it’s legal to hide money and not pay taxes. 7. Liberals had the government prorogued for 3 months while they played around with who could take over while Trump dumped tariffs on us. 8. Carney’s company Brookfield intends to build homes to rent to Canadians with our tax dollars and Brookfield being the owner. 9. Carney sells Canadian dirty coal to China and India then blames us with contributing 1.5% of the worlds carbon and carbon taxes us to death meanwhile China is at 32% of the world’s carbon that Carney helped them get to. What a hypocrite. 10. Carney kicks Chandra Arya to the curb who has won the last 3 elections in Nepean for the liberals. Carney took the easiest seat available to win to try to get an MP job. Another set up and another slimy move. 11. Carney’s company Brookfield has clear cut 9,000 hectares of rain forest in Brazil for pure profit. I thought his idea was net zero??!! 12. Mark Carney took an all expenses paid trip to the UK before he was even temporarily made PM. This is an unelected person getting a free $500,000 trip. This is unethical and he should have used his own money. 13. Carney has used his power to influence the UK to use more expensive jet fuel, then had his company Brookfield invest $1 billion to be able to profit from that. 14. Carney is proposing an altered much higher carbon tax on corporations that will dump down on citizens with no rebates. Carney says the carbon tax has been used sparingly and needs to be doubled. 15. Carney wants to institute carbon credits that will restrict travel in your vehicle and vacations but the ultra rich can buy your credits so they can still enjoy the world. Same as China. 16. Carney wants to bring in carbon tariffs, which is called a carbon border adjustment on any country that he feels doesn’t have a high enough carbon tax. This means the whole world. Carney thinks he’s in charge of the entire planet now. This will increase the price on all imported items we buy. You can only imagine what this will do to the cost of materials. 17. The former UK British Prime Minister Liz Truss has warned Canada to stay away from him and his disasterous Net Zero scams. As did the Mayor of Lima, Peru. 18. Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss on Mark Carney: "I strongly recommend not backing Mark Carney for his policies on Net Zero. It was disastrous for Britain. It would be disastrous for Canada. She stated he printed too much money and put their economy off track. After he left his successors have struggled to clear up the mess. Inflation spiked to 11.1 % in the UK compared to 5.2% in France. 19. Mayor Lopez Aliaga of Lima Peru said Brookfield, chaired by Carney, was “making massive profits off a toxic contract” plagued by bribes. 20. The Municipality of Lima is currently suing Brookfield (Carney is part of Brookfield asset management) in a New York City court. It’s part of an ongoing legal battle that has been going on for years. Mark Carney and Brookfield instituted tolls on the poorest people that took 1/3 of their monthly income. 21. Carney lied when he said he would build LNG pipelines across Canada to the west in English, the told Quebec in French, never without their permission! 22. Carney lied straight to everyone's faces in the debate, when he said he had nothing to do with Brookfield leaving Canada for the USA. Actually he was still Chair and recommended the move 6 days after Trump announced the tariffs. 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No matter how devastating the costs, and an end to Canadian Identity as we know it. All for profit. They have a website where you can read all about it. Trudeau brought in 1 million per year over 3 years and crashed our housing and healthcare. 27. Carney refuses to declare his assets before becoming the Pm and put them in a blind trust. That’s why the election was called with minimal notice. 28. Carney’s competitors were illegally eliminated before the liberal mini election to purposely to give Carney the job even though they raised the $350K. Ruby Dhalla is one of them, and Chandra Arya is another. Now Carney took his riding. 29. Carney says he would implement the emergency act against tariffs if necessary again. 30. In Carney’s own book he states capitalism is evil and rigid controls on personal freedoms, industry and corporations are necessary. Poverty will definitely happen but for the good of world order. In other words personal freedom is not an option. 31. 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Fact Check: Carney has massive direct ties to Trump and Elon Musk. 1. Carney moved Brookfield asset management to NY only 6 days after Trump imposes tariffs. This makes Trump happy. 2. Carney will not get rid of bill C69 which is no new pipelines in Canada. So this means most of our oil and gas continues to go to Trump in the US. We need to be independent. Again siding with Trump, Trump is very happy. 3. Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner was in financial trouble and Carney’s company Brookfield signed a 99 year lease on his property at 666 fifth ave for 1.1 billion with all funds up front (unheard of terms) this cements Trumps admiration for Carney and Carney is now considered family. 4. Carney had Brookfield asset management bail out Elon Musk (Twitter) when he had the big buyout. This is Trumps best buddy and considers Carney also a big business partner with him now. 5. Trump publicly stated that he prefers dealing with the liberals as they never say anything bad about him but Pierre stands up for Canada and says Canada will never be the 51st state and he doesn’t like that. Trump says he wants to deal with Carney. 6. Carney has used off shore banking to hide Brookfields income and owes 5.3 billion to the government over the last 15 years. The address for the account in Bermuda is a bike shop. Carney says it’s legal to hide money and not pay taxes. 7. Liberals had the government prorogued for 3 months while they played around with who could take over while Trump dumped tariffs on us. 8. Carney’s company Brookfield intends to build homes to rent to Canadians with our tax dollars and Brookfield being the owner. 9. Carney sells Canadian dirty coal to China and India then blames us with contributing 1.5% of the worlds carbon and carbon taxes us to death meanwhile China is at 32% of the world’s carbon that Carney helped them get to. What a hypocrite. 10. Carney kicks Chandra Arya to the curb who has won the last 3 elections in Nepean for the liberals. Carney took the easiest seat available to win to try to get an MP job. Another set up and another slimy move. 11. Carney’s company Brookfield has clear cut 9,000 hectares of rain forest in Brazil for pure profit. I thought his idea was net zero??!! 12. Mark Carney took an all expenses paid trip to the UK before he was even temporarily made PM. This is an unelected person getting a free $500,000 trip. This is unethical and he should have used his own money. 13. Carney has used his power to influence the UK to use more expensive jet fuel, then had his company Brookfield invest $1 billion to be able to profit from that. 14. Carney is proposing an altered much higher carbon tax on corporations that will dump down on citizens with no rebates. Carney says the carbon tax has been used sparingly and needs to be doubled. 15. Carney wants to institute carbon credits that will restrict travel in your vehicle and vacations but the ultra rich can buy your credits so they can still enjoy the world. Same as China. 16. Carney wants to bring in carbon tariffs, which is called a carbon border adjustment on any country that he feels doesn’t have a high enough carbon tax. This means the whole world. Carney thinks he’s in charge of the entire planet now. This will increase the price on all imported items we buy. You can only imagine what this will do to the cost of materials. 17. The former UK British Prime Minister Liz Truss has warned Canada to stay away from him and his disasterous Net Zero scams. As did the Mayor of Lima, Peru. 18. Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss on Mark Carney: "I strongly recommend not backing Mark Carney for his policies on Net Zero. It was disastrous for Britain. It would be disastrous for Canada. She stated he printed too much money and put their economy off track. After he left his successors have struggled to clear up the mess. Inflation spiked to 11.1 % in the UK compared to 5.2% in France. 19. Mayor Lopez Aliaga of Lima Peru said Brookfield, chaired by Carney, was “making massive profits off a toxic contract” plagued by bribes. 20. The Municipality of Lima is currently suing Brookfield (Carney is part of Brookfield asset management) in a New York City court. It’s part of an ongoing legal battle that has been going on for years. Mark Carney and Brookfield instituted tolls on the poorest people that took 1/3 of their monthly income. 21. Carney lied when he said he would build LNG pipelines across Canada to the west in English, the told Quebec in French, never without their permission! 22. Carney lied straight to everyone's faces in the debate, when he said he had nothing to do with Brookfield leaving Canada for the USA. Actually he was still Chair and recommended the move 6 days after Trump announced the tariffs. So this was a move to please Trump and avoid Canadas taxes and Trumps tariffs. 23. Brookfield owns pipelines in other countries and Carney has fought tooth and nail not to have Canada’s resources hit the open market. This is loss of profit for his company. Conservatives have fought for this for years. Now Carney and the liberals are campaigning to do this. This will end up being another lie just to get votes. 24. Carney lied when he said he worked with Paul Martin on balancing the federal budget, when he was at Goldman Sachs at that time as a Wall Street banker. 25. Carney lied when he said he helped save Canada during the 2008 banking crisis. It was not him who steered Canada away from the disaster that the "Bankers" like him at Goldman Sachs caused, it was the late Jim Flaherty. 26. Carney is involved in the Century Initiative, which was created to increase Canada's population to 100 million by 2050 that’s over 2 million per year that tax payers have to foot the bill. No matter how devastating the costs, and an end to Canadian Identity as we know it. All for profit. They have a website where you can read all about it. Trudeau brought in 1 million per year over 3 years and crashed our housing and healthcare. 27. Carney refuses to declare his assets before becoming the Pm and put them in a blind trust. That’s why the election was called with minimal notice. 28. Carney’s competitors were illegally eliminated before the liberal mini election to purposely to give Carney the job even though they raised the $350K. Ruby Dhalla is one of them, and Chandra Arya is another. Now Carney took his riding. 29. Carney says he would implement the emergency act against tariffs if necessary again. 30. In Carney’s own book he states capitalism is evil and rigid controls on personal freedoms, industry and corporations are necessary. Poverty will definitely happen but for the good of world order. In other words personal freedom is not an option. 31. Carney and the others that fought for the PM job (in the liberal debate) were forbidden to discuss the fentanyl crisis, homelessness, immigration, border issues, bail reform, China foreign interference or mass debt issues. This is from Trudeau himself. If Carney will lie this much before the election then refuse to follow all the proper ethics and conflict investigations, then he is going to continue to lie well after he gets in office. This is just another Justin Trudeau! Liar Personified! This is who Trudeau wants in office as Prime Minister without him ever being elected. His partner in corruption, greed, and immorality. Except he is even better connected, and established with the funds behind him. And soon he will have access to all of Canadas fund and Information about all companies for when he returns to the private sector. Ask yourself, why is a guy making $20 million a year here to make $203,000 as an MP (which Carney is not one) plus $203,000 for prime minister. = $406,000

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Members of his transition team had shown up to their first meeting with outgoing NDP government officials with a list of six high-ranking deputy ministers they wanted to meet quickly. Those civil servants were the A-list, empowered to advise and serve Harris’s agenda; several others, considered unfriendly, received their pink slips as part of a careful purge. As one NDP official remarked, his own party had “assumed office, but never took power. These guys are taking power even before they have assumed office.” Poilievre’s transition team also was thinking very strategically about how they would wield the machinery of the state. Who did they want to bring into the higher ranks of public service to help advance their plans? Who should be removed? And who might they want for the most important position of all, the top ranking civil servant, the Clerk of the Privy Council? These were some of the questions they were asking while plotting their first moves. 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And yet, over the years and in the run-up to the spring of 2025, Poilievre had telegraphed a lot in past election platforms, online videos, and podcast interviews with Jordan Peterson. It hinted at what his sweeping agenda would entail if he was able to secure a majority government—an assault on the country’s collective assets and already tattered social programs, a renewed attack on unions, activist and Indigenous defenders, and a bonanza of deregulation and privatization that would make his billionaire backers cheer. This is an excerpt from Martin Lukacs’s THE POILIEVRE PROJECT : A RADICAL BLUEPRINT FOR CORPORATE RULE published by Breach Books and available for order.

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Fact Check: THIS IS STRAIGHT OUT OF THE MAGA PROJECT 2025 : PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE AND SHARE FAR AND WIDE ❤ THANK YOU FOLKS ❤ LIKE THE MAGA, THE PP HAS A 100 DAY AGENDA : The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. Over the past year, if you asked around Ottawa about the transition team that was planning Pierre Poilievre’s first days in government, you were likely to be met with shrugs. The members of the team were not named, and those in the know were not talking. Even The Hill Times, the Ottawa parliamentary affairs outlet that excels at digging up gossipy news, had come up empty-handed. At the outset of 2025, they approached a dozen Conservatives close to Poilievre, all of whom stayed tight-lipped. His campaign manager Jenni Byrne ran a very tight organization, and slip-ups might incur her wrath. Besides, any operative whose party is on the verge of power knows it’s best to maintain utmost organizational secrecy. Such discipline, however, sometimes falters under the influence of a few drinks. That’s what Bryan Evans, a political science professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, found out in late 2024. Around the winter holidays, he ducked into his neighbourhood bar and ran into an old acquaintance. The man wasn’t himself on the transition team, but it turned out he was deeply informed. They slid onto stools for a conversation. While they didn’t run in the same circles, and certainly didn’t share political opinions, his acquaintance knew that Evans had an understanding and appreciation for the machinery of government. For ten years he was employed by the Ontario government, including a stint in the Ministry of Labour after Progressive Conservative Mike Harris had come to power in the mid 1990s. Relying on insights from that experience, he wrote his doctoral dissertation on that government and its radical agenda. In December 2024, Poilievre was riding high in the polls, as he had been for nearly two years. So maybe it was the overconfidence talking. Over beers, Evans’s drinking companion laid out more about the transition planning than anything yet discovered by well-connected reporters in the establishment media. The group was preparing for a Poilievre government to hit the ground running. It was going to be a blitzkrieg. “You were there at the start of the Mike Harris government.” “Yeah,” Evans said. “That’s going to be the playbook.” It was an ominous sign. Mike Harris’s government had moved quickly to make dramatic reforms. They had a hundred-day agenda, and they got a lot done: laying off public sector employees, cutting funding to education, slashing social assistance rates, deregulating industries, repealing equity laws, selling off Crown corporations, and empowering the government to impose user fees on public services. “It’s going to come hard and fast from every direction again,” Evan’s acquaintance said. The groups and communities impacted, as well as the political opposition, both inside Parliament and outside, would have to fight on dozens of fronts at once. One of Harris’s key first steps was to balance the budget as a way of supercharging their plans, according to Guy Giorno, the premier’s top strategist. He described this as their “agenda within the agenda,” the “factor which meant that absolutely everybody rolled in the same direction.” It began the process of shrinking public spending, and was followed up by deregulation, rolling back labour protections, freezing the minimum wage, and encouraging the subcontracting of public services. Back in the 1990s, Harris had been convinced by Alberta Premier Ralph Klein’s advisors that he would have to move speedily to implement his agenda, lest he get tripped up by protests or a stubborn public service. Those advisors had once encouraged Klein to read the work of economist Milton Friedman (Pierre Poilievre’s own ideological guru). In the 1980’s, Friedman had written that “a new administration has some six to nine months in which to achieve major changes; if it does not seize the opportunity to act decisively during that period, it will not have another such opportunity.” It’s the lesson Friedman had drawn from his first laboratory, Chile. After the U.S. backed overthrow of democratic socialist Salvador Allende, the military dictator Augusto Pinochet had instituted a violent, rapid-fire makeover of the economy, following Friedman’s radical free market rulebook: privatization, deregulation, cutbacks to the public sector, and attacks on labour unions. Purging the public service As for the composition of Poilievre’s transition group, Bryan Evans’ acquaintance belatedly recalled his Fight Club rules. He wouldn’t divulge names, but offered some ideas. There were Poilievre’s policy advisors, as well as some former senior public servants, lawyers, and an ex-Cabinet minister. He admitted that some people who had been around for the Mike Harris days were in there too. Even before they were sworn in as the government in 1995, Harris’s team had laid groundwork within the public service to ensure they could take swift control of the levers of power. Members of his transition team had shown up to their first meeting with outgoing NDP government officials with a list of six high-ranking deputy ministers they wanted to meet quickly. Those civil servants were the A-list, empowered to advise and serve Harris’s agenda; several others, considered unfriendly, received their pink slips as part of a careful purge. As one NDP official remarked, his own party had “assumed office, but never took power. These guys are taking power even before they have assumed office.” Poilievre’s transition team also was thinking very strategically about how they would wield the machinery of the state. Who did they want to bring into the higher ranks of public service to help advance their plans? Who should be removed? And who might they want for the most important position of all, the top ranking civil servant, the Clerk of the Privy Council? These were some of the questions they were asking while plotting their first moves. When it came to policy plans, one crucial difference between the two eras was that Mike Harris’ Conservatives publicly had rolled out their agenda years in advance. Harris’s young ideologues put out detailed papers, organized policy conferences, eventually published a manifesto, the Common Sense Revolution, of which they printed 2.5 million copies. Everyone knew what was coming, even if it would still shock people when it arrived and extend far beyond what Harris had promised. Would Poilievre’s team, for instance, follow Mike Harris’s “playbook” on healthcare? Harris had lulled Ontario into complacency by assuaging voters’ fears about protecting health services. Their manifesto was crystal clear: “We will not cut healthcare spending.” But the result turned out to look very different: forty hospital closures, 25,000 staff laid off, and declining per capita real funding at a time of growing need. Poilievre’s team, by contrast, hadn’t laid out many policy details. And yet, over the years and in the run-up to the spring of 2025, Poilievre had telegraphed a lot in past election platforms, online videos, and podcast interviews with Jordan Peterson. It hinted at what his sweeping agenda would entail if he was able to secure a majority government—an assault on the country’s collective assets and already tattered social programs, a renewed attack on unions, activist and Indigenous defenders, and a bonanza of deregulation and privatization that would make his billionaire backers cheer. This is an excerpt from Martin Lukacs’s THE POILIEVRE PROJECT : A RADICAL BLUEPRINT FOR CORPORATE RULE published by Breach Books and available for order.

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Apr 6, 2025
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