Excerpt: Under the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, which passed after 10 years of legislative wrangling, working women are granted 12 weeks' unpaid time off to care for a newborn or adopted child, with the guarantee of the same job when they return. To qualify, they must have been employed for at least 12 months at the same firm before the time off and have worked a minimum of 1,250 hours during the same period. What makes this law so unhelpful for many working women is that companies with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from abiding by it--meaning that these smaller firms are not obligated to grant any time off to care for a newborn (or sick family member). Although many large companies, such as Wall Street outfits and telecommunication firms, offer some kind of paid-leave package, more than half of U.S. companies employ fewer than 50 people.

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