While the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has been in place since 1993—the federal law allows eligible employees of public agencies or private companies with fifty or more employees to take off up to twelve weeks for health, pregnancy, newborn, or other family caregiving needs, unpaid, without being fired—US workplaces mostly ignore the needs of working parents, 40 percent of whom aren’t covered at all under FMLA.121
