Is There a Federal Answer to Employee Leave Question?

Let's call her Jane. She's 32 and a junior vice president at a big investment bank. The firm's attempt at more manageable hours has made it possible for her to reshuffle her work and stay on after having a baby. But growing responsibilities to clients pull her away from her new role. She totes little Jack to the office on Saturdays and balances her travel schedule so that either she or her husband can be home each evening. When Jack is 2 going on 3, he diverts this promising high-powered career with a single game of pretend. As she remembers it, he said,  'Pretend you're a kid, and I'm your mommy.' I agreed, and so he said, 'I'm the mommy, I'm going to work. You're the kid, you cry.'  Needless to say, Jane did.Now consider Luis, 39, a single dad with a full-time job as a line cook at a restaurant on Capitol Hill. The age gap between young parents and the unencumbered at this workplace is about the same as among the bankers. Almost all the employees in their 30s are kitchen staff with kids at home, while the wait staff is made up of 20-somethings still living with roommates. When a sick babysitter means missing a shift, Luis has to negotiate a last-minute cover with the rest of the staff. If it happens too often, we'd have to find a full-time replacement for the good of the restaurant, the assistant manager tells me. Fortunately, we're like a family, and someone's almost always ready to step up. But the assistant manager is still young, in her mid-20s, and if she were pregnant there would be no possibility of paid maternity leave. In this sort of business, if you don't work, you don't get paid.