Balancing the Needs of Families
and Employers, a Department of Labor report released January
9th, 2001, is an assessment of the effectiveness of the FMLA in
"meeting the needs of employees without imposing undue burden on
employers". Â In this report the
Department of Labor has compiled new survey data for 2000, updating the 1995
employee and establishment survey data that was used in the earlier report
titled, A
Workable Balance: Report to Congress on Family and Medical Leave Policies. Â
A summary of the major findings follows:
·        the total number of employees taking leave for family or medical reasons remained almost the same - 16.5% in 2000 and 16% in 1995
·        in 2000 employees were less likely to take leave for their own health reasons.  Instead a larger percentage of leaves were for other reasons such as the care of a newborn, foster or adopted child, or the care of a spouse or a parent.
·        "leave-needing" ( i.e. the share of employees needing leave but not taking it) dropped significantly between 1995 and 2000, but the most common reason for not taking leave remained financial
·        the majority of leave-takers said that taking leave had positive effects on their own and their family´s physical and emotional health and that the recovery time had been speeded up
·        more than half of the leave-takers cited financial concerns arising from their leave (only two-thirds of leave takers received some pay during their leave)
·        75% of the women who took leave had young children compared to  45.1% of the men
·        employees in 2000 viewed the FLMA more favorably than in 1995 with 81.4% agreeing that every working person should be able to have up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for family and medical problems.  As well a majority of employees felt that their co-workers taking leave had no impact on their workload.
·        the majority of establishments provide up to 12 weeks of leave for their employees´ own serious health conditions, for mother´s maternity-related reasons, for parents´ care for newborns, and for employees´ care for a child, spouse, or parent with a serious health problem and nearly half provide up to 12 weeks of leave for adoption or foster care
·        in 2000 there was a significant increase in the number of employers reporting difficulties in maintaining extra records, determining employee eligibility, and coordinating the act with other leave policies
·        but they also reported that the FLMA had no noticeable effect on profitability, productivity or growth
In conclusion, the study points to the need for further research on employer´s experiences administering the FMLA to see if these difficulties are unique or are similar to administering other personnel policies and mandates. Â As well, the Department wishes to research what motivates non-covered establishments to offer FMLA-like coverage. Â
For employees the major concern is the financial cost of leaves of absence.
Further research is also required to determine whether employees are cutting back their own personal health leaves to serve the needs of other family members.