In an article for the Monthly Labor Review, associate professor Jane Waldfogel of Columbia University draws on Department of labor surveys for 2000 in pointing towards a growing usage of the Family and Medical Leave Act. This research has shown an increasing number of workers using the twelve-weeks unpaid leave guaranteed to employees of companies with 50 or more employees, along with a decrease in the number of workers who were unable to take this leave despite experiencing a birth, adoption or illness in their families. Two surprising trends that came out of the figures Ms. Waldfogel looked at were the fact that over sixty-five percent of businesses covered by the FMLA have reported no negative effects as a result of complying with the act, and the fact that many of those making use of the FMLA for births and adoptions are men.
See CAROL KLEIMAN, Chicago Tribune, February 4, 2002