Legislating a Family-Friendly Workplace: Should It Be Done in the United States?

This Article reviews both domestic and international efforts to legislate a more family-friendly workplace, with an eye toward measuring the impact of these various initiatives and predicting both their future success and the likelihood of more widespread adoption. In particular, the Article reviews federal, state, and international legislative efforts to mandate: paid parental leaves; paid sick days; and flexible work arrangements. The Article then attempts to measure the effectiveness of such legislatively required, family-friendly policies by suggesting ways to measure and to predict the impact of U.S. legislative efforts to reconcile the conflicting responsibilities of work and parenthood. The Article concludes by presenting economic, legal, and ethical reasons why family-friendly policies should be both voluntarily adopted and legislatively required