Supporting Statement: Women's Bureau FY 2016 Paid Leave Analysis grant program

Funding Opportunity Announcement

Control Number: 800800

Paid Leave Analysis

Supplemental Supporting Statement A: Justification

The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL” or “Department”) Women’s Bureau (“WB”) is preparing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (“FOA”) soliciting applications for its FY 2016 Paid Leave Analysis grant program. This request seeks OMB approval of the FOA, in light of the Paperwork Reduction Act.

The FOA will announce the availability of approximately $1 million in grant funds. The WB expects to award up to six (6) grants of up to $250,000 each. Funds provided under this grant program will be FY 2016 funds, and the budget for this program will not exceed $1 million. The Department’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is responsible for the grant award process of this WB grant program.

This grant program is intended to support research and analysis needed to explore, develop, implement, and/or improve paid family and medical leave programs at the State and municipal levels, as well as in U.S. Territories and Possessions and federally recognized Indian/Native American Tribes. Paid family and medical leave programs help workers with caregiving responsibilities remain in the workforce, and have been shown to improve health outcomes for children, ill adults, and seniors. Such programs have also been shown to increase workplace productivity and worker recruitment and retention. Although the federal family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) provides job-protected leave for eligible workers to care for their newborn or newly adopted children, their family members with serious health conditions, and their own serious health conditions, the FMLA does not require that such leave be paid. In recent years, a few States and several municipalities have implemented their own paid family and medical leave programs to ensure that workers have the economic security to care for themselves and their family members.

With this grant program, the Department is taking a critical step toward helping jurisdictions throughout the United States build the administrative infrastructure necessary to meet the realities of today’s working families while also bolstering the Nation’s long-term economic success.

Grants issued through this program must be used to carry out specified categories of research and analysis activities. This grant program does not require grantees to enact a paid family and medical leave program, and receipt of funds under this grant program is not contingent upon a potential grantee’s agreement to do so.

To be eligible for funds under this grant program, an applicant must be a government entity from one of the following levels of government: State; County; City; Township; U.S. Territory or Possession; or federally recognized Indian/Native American Tribe. In addition, the applicant’s jurisdiction must have an estimated population of at least 50,000 residents. (Federally recognized Indian/Native American Tribes must have populations of 10,000 or greater.) Satisfaction of these criteria will be verified prior to award.

Applicants must:

• Present a clear description of the research and analysis activities they intend to conduct and identify the anticipated deliverables from such activities;

• Explain how such activities and deliverables will advance their efforts to explore, develop, implement, and/or improve a paid family and medical leave program within their jurisdiction; and

• Outline a solid financial infrastructure that demonstrates proper resource management.

Applicants must also commit to sharing, with non-participating jurisdictions at forthcoming events, any knowledge and promising practices gleaned from their research and analysis.

The WB expects the period of performance for these grants to be one year, starting in September 2016; grantees will be required to submit quarterly financial and programmatic narratives. Additionally, full participation (by grantees and sub-grantees) in any evaluation initiated by DOL is a condition of all grant awards.

Electronic Availability:

This FOA will be available electronically at: http://www.grants.gov/. Based on past DOL experience, the Department anticipates that 80 percent of responses will be filed electronically.

Small Entities:

This information collection will not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Assurances of Confidentiality:

This Funding Opportunity Announcement does not offer applicants assurances of confidentiality.

Special Circumstances:

This Funding Opportunity Announcement implicates no special circumstances.

Burden:

Based on past experience, DOL expects to receive approximately twenty applications from an equal number of respondents. ETA estimates public reporting burden for the information collection to average twenty hours per response for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining needed data, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

20 applications x 20 hours = 400 hours.

DOL has increased the October 2014 average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry of $29.29 per hour by 40 percent (total $41.01 per hour) to monetize this burden.  See The Employment Situation—October 2014, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_11072014.pdf, at page 32.

400 hours x $41.01 = $16,404.

DOL associates no other cost burdens with this information collection. In addition to the application, each grantee will be required to submit quarterly financial reports to ETA, as well as quarterly performance and narrative reports to the WB. These information collection requirements will be cleared under a separate control number.

Total Burden: 20 respondents, 20 responses, 400 hours, $0 other cost burdens.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

3