The impact of the Family and Medical Leave Act

This article uses data from employer surveys and the March Current Populati on Survey to investigate the impact of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FM LA) on coverage, leave-taking employment, and earnings. The variation in st ate laws prior to the FMLA and the variation in coverage under the FMLA pro vides a "natural experiment" in which the effect of the law can be compared for treatment and control groups. Although the FMLA covers less than half of workers in the private sector (many of whom already had coverage pre-FML A), this article finds that leave coverage and usage did increase post-FMLA . The other surprising finding is that this mandated benetif had no signifi cant negative effects on women's employment or wages. (C) 1999 by the Assoc iation for Public Policy Analysis and Management.