摘要
家庭，係每個人生命的起點，亦是生活中不可或缺的重心，而在工商繁忙的現代社會，勞工要能兼顧工作與家庭生活，就關係到親職假法制的建立與內容。而以往提到親職假，諸多研究的重心多著眼於懷孕受僱人之產假(母職假)、陪產假(父職假)，及照顧新生或領養子女之父母親職假(或稱「育嬰假」)，假期之長短與給薪之有無，並以歐洲高福利國家之親職假法制為研究參考。惟親職假之內涵除母職假、父職假及育嬰假以外，尚包含受僱人其他家庭照顧需要的家庭照顧假，乃我國親職假法制研究及現行制度著墨不深的部分，卻係美國《家庭與醫療假法》的規範重點。 故本文親職假法制研究內容，包含產假、產檢假、陪產假、育嬰留職停薪假及家庭照顧假等等假別，泛稱為「親職假」，並研究美國法及我國法是否達到促進性別平等、衡平勞工工作與生活及兼顧勞雇權利的目的，而我國法制未來還有何發展的空間。 本論文之研究結果認為，不論是美國或我國法制，都不夠兼顧雇主與勞工之權利，我國法制應思考雇主分攤社會責任的公平性、著重如何使法制能達到促進真正性別平等的效果，並應參考美國法制作為家庭照顧假與調整或減少工作時間措施再設計的範本，更活化的運用相關法制，以照顧現代社會多元家庭，並因應邁向少子化、老齡化及失能人口日趨增多的現代社會下，勞工全方位家庭照顧的需要。
並列摘要
A Family is the root of a human being whom, in all aspects of definition, may be qualified as a labor of the modern society. To the balancing of works and family livings, there exists a need of the Parental Leave Law (PLL) and what shall be covered for all concerns. To date, researches of the PLL in Taiwan focus mainly on the duration and payment availability of maternity leave, paternity leave, and parental leave. These studies share very common comparative materials with respect to the similar laws among higher welfare European countries. However, the parental leave law is not only comprised of maternity leave, paternity leave, and parental leave but also family leave so that labor as an employee of a private sector is eligible and viable to take care of family members in many needs other than illness and attention requirements. Provable results of the infrastructure and establishment mechanism of the parental leave law are not frequently discussed, while this study notices that the USA Family and Medical Leave Act (USA FMLA) covers most of the concerns and worth to be a referable study resource. This thesis focuses on the infrastructure of the PLL where includes maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave and family leave. Comparative materials between the USA FMLA and the Taiwan Parental Leave Law (Taiwan PLL) are retrieved to set aside for the gender equality, and to observe the balance between employee rights and employer interests. Suggestive findings of the study may serve to call a further amendment of the Taiwan PLL since no existence of balance between employee rights and employer interests has been found. The study urges Taiwan law makers shall consider both that employers share more responsibility of the social equality and that the gender equality shall be included in the establishment of counter laws. The USA FMLA schema may provide to be a choice of reference source for the amendment of Taiwan PLL. Results also suggest that more affirmative and applicable Taiwan PLL will be much appreciated especially for dealing with the emerging social issues of less children in a family, elderly generation and disabilities.