Family And Medical Leave Act - FMLA

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a law that allows eligible employees to take up to twelve workweeks of unpaid leave within twelve months for family and medical reasons, all without having to worry about losing their jobs, and keeping their group health insurance as if they were still working.

Is this new? Nope...it's been around since 1993. The point of this law was to help Americans with that whole “work-life balance” thing without them worrying about losing their jobs. “Eligible” means FMLA does only apply to some people...specifically, people who have worked for the business at least 1,250 hours in the past year. Also, the company must have 50 or more employees within 75 miles (so small companies are excluded, since a smaller company with many people on leave might run them out of business, especially if they’re a new, fledgling company).

For those that are eligible, FMLA means that moms and dads can take some time off to take care of their newborn for the first year...or their newly adopted kid. FMLA also means people are supposed to be able to take time off to care for seriously sick family members, and there are special cases (and a higher weeks-off threshold) for military families.