Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

Long title	An Act To grant family and temporary medical leave under certain circumstances.
Acronyms (colloquial)	FMLA
Enacted by	the 103rd United States Congress
Citations
Public law	Pub.L. 103–3
Statutes at Large	107 Stat. 6
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/1 by William D. Ford (D-MI) on January 5, 1993 Committee consideration by House Education and Labor, House Post Office and Civil Service Passed the House on February 3, 1993 (265–163) Passed the Senate on February 4, 1993 (71–27) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on February 4, 1993 (Via www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-resolution/71, 247–152) Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on February 5, 1993
Major amendments
No Child Left Behind Act

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a United States federal law requiring covered employers to provide employees with job-protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons. Qualified medical and family reasons include: personal or family illness, family military leave, pregnancy, adoption, or the foster care placement of a child. The FMLA is administered by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor.

The bill was a major part of President Bill Clinton's agenda in his first term. Rapid growth in the workforce, including a large number of women joining, suggested a necessary federal regulation that would support the working class who desired to raise a family and/or required time off for illness related situationse rr.President Clinton signed the bill into law on February 5, 1993 (Pub.L. 103–3; 29 U.S.C. sec. 2601; 29 CFR 825) but it would be effective six months later on August 5, 1993.

The FMLA was intended "to balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families." The Act allows eligible employees to take up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period to attend to the serious health condition of the employee, parent, spouse or child, or for pregnancy or care of a newborn child, or for adoption or foster care of a child. In order to be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee must have been at the business at least 12 months, and worked at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months, and work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles. The FMLA covers both public- and private-sector employees, but certain categories of employees are excluded, including elected officials and their personal staff members.

In June 2007, the Department of Labor estimated that of 141.7 million workers in the United States, 94.4 million worked at FMLA-covered worksites, and 76.1 million were eligible for FMLA leave. Only eight to 17.1 percent of covered, eligible workers (or between 6.1 million and 13.0 million workers) took FMLA leave in 2005. The 2008 National Survey of Employers found no statistically significant difference between the proportion of small employers (79%) and large employers (82%) that offer full FMLA coverage.

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