The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA; P.L. 103-3 , as amended) entitles eligible employees to unpaid, job-protected leave for certain family and medical needs, with continuation of group health plan benefits. Through the act, Congress sought to strike a balance between workplace responsibilities and workers' growing need to take leave for significant family and medical events. The act as passed in 1993 focused on providing an entitlement to leave for the arrival of a newborn or newly-placed child, serious health conditions in the family, and the employee's own serious health condition that interferes with his or her ability to perform essential job functions. In passing the act, Congress cited an increase in dual-earner and single-parent households that reduced the share of families with a caregiver at home. This, alongside an aging population, increased workers' needs for workplace flexibility to attend to significant family and medical events. In 2008 and 2009, Congress responded to a heightened need for leave among military families (connected to large-scale deployments) by adding new categories of leave that allow eligible employees to address certain military exigencies stemming from the deployment of a close family member to a foreign country, and to care for a servicemember with a serious injury or illness who is a close family member. Congress recognized the potential for the FMLA leave entitlement to complicate scheduling for employers and otherwise disrupt business activity. It addressed business interests by placing clear parameters around the types of leave covered by the act, linking employer coverage and employee eligibility to the size of the employer's workforce, conditioning employee eligibility on job tenure and hours-worked requirements, and giving employers the right to advance notice of need for leave and to request medical documentation in certain circumstances. FMLA applies to covered employers and eligible employees in the private and public sectors. Title I of the act applies to eligible employees working in the private sector, state and local governments, and a small set of federal employees, and is administered by the Department of Labor (DOL). Congressional Offices, the Government Accountability Office, and the Library of Congress are also covered by Title I, but its provisions are administered by the U.S. Congress Office of Compliance, the Comptroller General of the United States, and the Librarian of Congress, respectively. Most federal civil service employees are covered by Title II of the act, which is administered by the Office of Personnel Management. Title II's statutory language is—with a few exceptions—closely similar in substance to Title I's, but there are some differences. This report describes the major provision of Title I of the FMLA as administered by the Secretary of Labor. It covers the FMLA leave entitlement and its characteristics, employer coverage, employee eligibility criteria, employer and employee responsibilities, and enforcement. An appendix provides the legislative history of the act. FMLA entitles eligible employees to 12 workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for certain family and medical needs and up to 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period for the care of a covered servicemember with a serious injury of illness. The act requires that covered employers grant up to 12 workweeks (total) in a 12-month period to eligible employees for one or more of the following reasons: the birth and care of the employee's newborn child, provided that leave is taken within 12 months of the child's birth; the placement of an adopted or fostered child with the employee, provided that leave is taken within 12 months of the child's placement; to care for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition; the employee's own serious health condition that renders the employee unable to perform at least one essential functions of his or her job; and qualified military exigencies related to the covered active duty status of the employee's spouse, son, daughter, or parent who is a covered military member. In addition, the act provides up to 26 workweeks of leave in a single 12-month period to eligible employees for the care of a covered military servicemember (including certain veterans) with a serious injury or illness that was sustained or aggravated in the line of duty while on active duty, if the eligible employee is the covered servicemember's spouse, child, parent, or next of kin. The 26 workweek entitlement applies on a per-servicemember, per-serious-injury or -illness basis. This type of FMLA leave is often referred to as military caregiver leave . The combination of military caregiver leave and other FMLA-qualified leave cannot exceed 26 weeks in a 12-month period that starts on the first day that military caregiver leave is used. FMLA leave used for the arrival and care of a new child, serious health conditions, and qualified military exigencies is always capped in total at 12 workweeks in the 12-month period. Special rules regarding the calculation of the FMLA leave entitlement (and other provisions) apply to airline flight crew employees. These employees are entitled to 72 days of leave during a 12-month period for the arrival and care of a new child, serious health conditions, and qualified military exigencies, and 156 days of leave in a single 12-month period for military-caregiver leave. See Appendix A for more information. Spouses employed by the same employer may be limited to a combined 12 weeks of FMLA leave in a 12-month period for the arrival and care of a new child, or the care of a parent with a serious health condition. Spouses working for the same employer may also be limited to a combined 26 weeks of FMLA leave in a single 12-month period to care for a seriously injured or ill covered servicemember (i.e., military caregiver leave). The terms serious health condition , qualifying military exigency , serious illness or injury , and care have specific meaning under the FMLA and its accompanying regulations. Under the FMLA, a serious health condition is one that requires inpatient care or continuing treatment by a health care provider. Inpatient care and continuing treatment are further defined by DOL regulations, resulting in six scenarios that qualify as a serious health condition for the purpose of taking FMLA leave. 1. Inpatient care. FMLA leave may be taken for inpatient care that includes an overnight stay in a medical facility (e.g., hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility). FMLA protects the time spent in inpatient care, and any associated period of incapacitation and treatment. 2. Incapacity and treatment. FMLA leave may be used for a period of incapacity that lasts more than three consecutive calendar days and requires either two or more in-person visits with a health care provider, or a single in-person visit that results in a course of continuing treatment under a health care provider's supervision. In the context of the FMLA, incapacity refers to "an inability to work, attend school or perform other regular daily activities due to the serious health condition, treatment therefore, or recovery therefrom." 3. Pregnancy or prenatal care. FMLA leave may be used for any period of incapacity due to pregnancy or for prenatal care. There is no requirement tying use of FMLA leave for pregnancy or prenatal care to a specific duration of incapacity or treatment by a health care provider. It may be used as needed, for example, by expectant mothers (or to care for an expectant mother) experiencing severe morning sickness. 4. Chronic conditions . FMLA leave may be taken for treatment of or incapacity due to a chronic serious health condition. A chronic serious health condition is one that requires periodic visits—at least twice a year—for medical treatment, continues over an extended period of time, and may cause episodic or continuing periods of incapacity (e.g., asthma, diabetes, epilepsy). 5. Long-term or permanent conditions. FMLA may be used for a long-term or permanent period of incapacity due to a condition for which treatment may not be effective, as long as the employee or family member is under the continuing supervision of (although not necessarily receiving treatment from) a health care provider. 6. Certain conditions requiring multiple treatments . FMLA leave may be used for any absence to receive and recover from multiple medical treatments for restorative surgery after an injury or accident, or for a condition that would likely result in a period of incapacity lasting three or more consecutive calendar days if not treated. Examples of such conditions include cancer (e.g., chemotherapy), severe arthritis (e.g., physical therapy), or kidney disease (e.g., dialysis). As demonstrated by the above list, FMLA leave cannot be used ordinarily for a minor ailment or for routine doctor's appointments. To give an example, the common cold generally does not meet the criteria of a serious health condition. In most cases it does not require an overnight stay in a medical facility and is unlikely to meet the regulatory definition of continuing treatment (e.g., three or more days of incapacitation and intervention by a health care provider). However, leave necessitated by a common cold is not excluded per se from protection under the act. If, for example, a common cold did lead to overnight hospitalization (e.g., due to complications or other factors), then it would be considered a serious health condition under FMLA and the absence—including periods of incapacitation, hospitalization, and subsequent treatment and recovery periods—would be protected. The act allows eligible employees to use FMLA leave to attend to qualified military exigencies stemming from the covered active duty status (or call to active duty) of a spouse, child, or parent who is a member of the Armed Forces (regular or reserve component). Under the act, c overed active duty for a regular Armed Forces member means duty " during the deployment of the member with the Armed Forces to a foreign country . "