The FMLA requires that employers provide the following to eligible employees who experience qualifying events. Up to a total of twelve workweeks of leave over a twelve-month period. When the qualifying event is the serious injury or illness of a service member incurred during active duty, the maximum period of leave is extended to twenty-six weeks. Maintenance of health insurance under the same conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. Restoration to the same position held before leave commenced or to an equivalent position with the same pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment. These three core requirements reinforce one another. The right to take leave would be rendered meaningless if employees did not retain their health insurance. Likewise, the promise of a right to take leave would be illusory if employees had to take leave without a reasonable guarantee that their jobs would still be there upon returning from leave. These employee rights are supported by requirements that employers must refrain from discriminating against employees for taking FMLA leave and from otherwise interfering with, restraining, or denying the exercise of FMLA rights. Generally, employer actions that delay or deny the leave give rise to interference claims, while actions taken by employers during or after periods of leave to punish leave takers constitute retaliation. Although both violate the FMLA, the distinction between interference and retaliation is important because an illegal motive must be shown in retaliation claims, while an employer’s reasons for interfering with FMLA rights do not matter. Decisions adversely affecting employees who have requested FMLA leave, who are on leave, or who have recently returned from leave should be very closely scrutinized. The FMLA creates an entitlement to leave. If an eligible employee experiences a qualifying event and notifies her employer that she needs to take leave, the employer must grant the amount of leave needed.