Twenty years ago, Congress passed the FMLA, the first federal law to guarantee (some) workers unpaid leave when they are forced to take time off to care for themselves or close relatives when seriously ill, or to care for a newly born or adopted child. The bill that ultimately became law had been fought over for eight years and, during that time, had suffered a series of withering cuts until it was anemic enough to gain majority support in Congress.

The FMLA added important protections for eligible employees, but it fell short of its aspiration to force employers to provide at least minimal accommodations for workers’ caretaking obligations and serious illnesses. Many workers are not eligible for FMLA leave, and those who are often cannot afford to take it. And although it provides men and women the same opportunity to take caretaking or parenting leave, it has done little to alter the disproportionate burden of caretaking that falls on women in most families. Nor did it improve the lives of workers enough to rescue the United States from its dismal ranking among industrialized countries when it comes to workers’ medical and caretaking leave.

After twenty years, it's time to expand the FMLA's protections to facilitate broader access to affordable leave in times of need. The current system has proved helpful in that it has established a norm that employees should not risk job loss due to leave necessitated by short-term health crises or the new obligations of parenting. It has also proven that the wildly exaggerated fears about the burden on employers of the cost of accommodating such leave, which drove much of the eight-year debate before the FMLA finally passed, were just that – wildly exaggerated. Employers report that they can administer FMLA leave with little cost or trouble. It's now time to take the next step.

THE FMLA: WHAT IT DOES AND DOESN'T OFFER

The FMLA gives eligible employees the right to twelve weeks of unpaid leave per year such leave is needed to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, to care for a seriously ill family member, or to attend to one's own serious health condition.