NEW YORK (AP) – The call for paid family leave on the Democratic party platform is the most ambitious attempt by a major party in years to reverse the United States’ status as the only industrialized nation without any standard for paid time off for new parents. But over the last five years a handful of states and some industries have been quietly increasing this benefit.
Last week’s convention put paid family leave on the list of workplace election issues along with the minimum wage and equal pay. The Democrats say they will try to secure up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to care for a new child. While the Republican platform makes no specific reference to paid family leave, the GOP in 2015 called for establishing a “flexible credit hour program” in which workers could exchange overtime hours worked for future leave time.
While Americans generally support paid family leave – a poll conducted this spring by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 72 percent of Americans 40 and older support the benefit – efforts to adopt a national standard haven’t gone anywhere. Advocates are now more hopeful. “It’s taken on an inevitability,” said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values @ Work, an advocacy group. “Not that it will happen by itself, that it will take work. It took a decade to get the first three states.”
More reason for optimism is that a few states and several competitive industries have slowly been bolstering paid parental leave laws and policies.
Here’s a look at the current best and worst industries and regions with regard to paid family leave benefits.