BLR Survey Reports 65 - 70 Percent of Employers Offer Military Leave Pay.

Business Editors

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 2003

As of January 22, 78,906 members of the National Guard and reserve units of the armed forces are on active duty.

With these numbers regularly increasing, many employers are struggling with how to handle paying employees called away from civilian employment to report for military duty.

What are employers required to do? Recognizing that civilians make up a large part of the U.S. military, Congress enacted the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) to provide employment protections and reinstatement rights to individuals who serve in the National Guard or Reserves.

USERRA leave - as well as leave under many state military leave laws - is unpaid. Yet many employers are unfamiliar with the laws, according to Alexandra Gross, an attorney with Business & Legal Reports (BLR). "USERRA was enacted in 1994 to encourage civilian military service by providing a measure of employment protection. However, many employers haven't had reason to address it until recently, with the war on terror, and now the possibility of war with Iraq. In light of that, the results of the survey are very interesting."

BLR's 2003 Survey of Employee Benefits found that many employers do compensate employees on military leave. Here's some highlights:

65-70 percent of employers don't have limits. According to the

survey, 65 - 70 percent of all employers do not have a limit on

what they pay employees called to duty. Not surprisingly, this

figure varied only slightly per region. However, employers in the

Northeast tended to offer the least in this category - about 57

percent.

The results by industry. Sixty-eight percent of manufacturing

firms reported having no limit, 74 percent of health firms

reported having no limit, while 69 percent of retail/wholesale

firms reported having no limit.

Full Pay / Differential Pay / No Pay. The survey also found that

26 percent of all employers offered full pay to employees who get

called to duty, 40 percent offered differential pay (the

difference between salary/wages and military pay), and 35 percent

of all employers offer no pay at all.

BLR conducts the Employee Benefits Survey annually. Other topics covered include Health Insurance, Paid Time-Off plans, Group Life Insurance, Pension Plans, and more. The report is available by calling BLR at 800-727-5257 or by visiting their website www.blr.com.