NFP finds only 26 percent are very confident in compliance as menopause laws spread
Employers keep adding leave types. Far fewer feel sure they can administer them correctly.
Only 26 percent of employers say they are very confident they can administer leave accurately and in line with the law, according to NFP, an Aon company and benefits consultancy based in New York, in its announcement of the 2027 NFP US Leave Management Report, even as the list of leave types and participating states keeps growing.
The report drew on a survey of 1,004 US employers conducted in coordination with research firm Empatix. The sample skews small, with 72 percent of respondents having fewer than 500 employees. The survey also measured confidence and not audited compliance, so the 26 percent shows how employers feel about their programs.
The time cost is visible, though. Among employers managing leave in-house without dedicated software, 46 percent said they spend three to five hours on each leave request, up from 37 percent the year before. Nearly half of employers that use leave software still spend three or more hours per request.
Leave administration means coordinating the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), state paid family and medical leave programs, short-term disability and a growing set of local rules.
“Leave is not just an administrative obligation,” said Maria Trapenasso, senior vice president and national practice leader for talent solutions at NFP in New York. “It’s a critical part of the employee experience and an important tool for attracting, supporting and retaining key talent.”
Menopause laws are moving faster than awareness
More than half of employers, 54 percent, said they were unaware of emerging menopause legislation. Rhode Island became the first state to require workplace protections for menopause in June 2025, and Philadelphia followed with an ordinance that December.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed the Menopause Equity and Care Act on August 7, 2026, according to the National Law Review. The employment provisions, which prohibit discrimination based on menopause-related conditions and require reasonable accommodations, take effect January 1, 2027. A requirement that group health coverage include menopause-related care follows on January 1, 2028.
Virginia’s legislature passed a similar bill in March, but the governor declined to sign it and asked the state labor department to study the issue first, according to the American Bar Association’s ABA Journal. Bloomberg Law reported that Rhode Island’s law helped spark a surge of proposals in 2026 legislative sessions.
Most of these laws work through accommodation processes employers already run. Proskauer Rose, a law firm, described Rhode Island’s law as extending protections equivalent to those long available to pregnant employees. HRD has covered what can happen when those processes fail, including a pregnant worker’s termination claim that revived on appeal after she lost her job within three months. For employers that haven’t reviewed how accommodation requests are handled, the exposure may be an existing duty that now applies more explicitly.
Only 7 percent of employers in the NFP survey offer menopause accommodations, and 34 percent said they are open to it within five years, up from 25 percent last year. NFP’s 2026 report put current offerings at 10 percent, and the materials reviewed didn’t explain the difference.
Bereavement leave is growing without a legal push
Not every expansion is driven by regulation. Of employers that offer bereavement leave, 35 percent now extend it to miscarriage or failed in vitro fertilization, up from 28 percent when NFP first measured it in 2023.
What a mishandled leave can cost
About three in 10 employers outsource leave administration entirely, and 69 percent handle it in-house, often without dedicated resources. Among those who have considered outside help, 66 percent named cost as the main barrier. That tracks with HRD’s reporting on rising medical costs squeezing HR budgets heading into 2027.
Under the FMLA’s enforcement provisions, an employer found in violation can owe lost wages and benefits, an equal amount in liquidated damages, attorney’s fees and equitable relief. One mishandled leave can cost several times the wages involved.
Accommodation fights can also drag on. HRD reported on a worker’s termination fight after two years of accommodations that ended in a ruling for the employer. An audit of which leave types an organization offers, who owns compliance for each one and whether its systems can track them accurately would show where the gaps are before a claim does.
