In 1993, the United States Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to recognize the importance of enabling workers to take time off work to participate in early child rearing and to care for themselves or family members who have serious health conditions. The FMLA was signed into law to balance the demands that employment can place on workers with the workers' own medical needs and the needs of their families. The FMLA allows employees to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave each year for the birth or adoption of a child, to care for a child, spouse or parent who has a serious health condition, or when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition. Under the FMLA, it is illegal for an employer to interfere with or deny a person's right to the unpaid leave that the FMLA allows. The FMLA also prohibits an employer from retaliating against any employee based on his or her opposition to the employer's interference with or denial of a person's right to take such leave. Generally, the employee must be returned to work at his or her same position after the FMLA leave is completed. Only employees employed at a worksite where his or her employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles of the site, and who have been employed by the employer for at least one year and worked at least 1,250 hours during the twelve month period immediately previous to the requested leave are covered by the FMLA. An employee whose rights have been violated under the FMLA may be entitled to wages or benefits denied or lost by reason of the violation, interest on the lost wages, benefits, or actual monetary losses, and liquidated damages equal to the sum of the lost wages, benefits, or actual monetary losses. If wages and benefits were not denied or lost, then actual monetary losses sustained as a direct result of the violation may be recovered.