Giving Compass' Take:

• Aparna Mathur argues that a federal paid leave policy is needed to protect American workers, particularly low-income workers, who do not have the option of taking medical or family leave without fear of lost wages or a lost job. 

• How can philanthropy support the creation of such a national policy? How can philanthropy work outside of policy to improve leave practices at the local level? 

• Find out why family caregiving needs to be a part of paid leave policies. 

Paid leave policies are in place in California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New York. Washington state and the District of Columbia will soon begin to phase in their paid leave plans. Many large employers have come forward to voluntarily offer paid parental leave to their employees.

However, we still have a long way to go. The National Compensation Survey shows that only a small fraction of workers across the country, 15 percent, have access to paid family leave. Access is even worse for the lowest wage workers.

According to a Pew Research report last year, 30 percent of workers with household incomes under $30,000 said that they were unable to take leave when they needed it.

While a few states have adopted paid leave programs and employer support for these policies is rising, there is no substitute to instituting a basic floor of benefits at the federal level that is broadly available to workers across the spectrum. To this end, our working group recommended an eight-week job-protected parental leave policy, at 70 percent wage replacement with a cap on benefits of $600.

With the joint responsibilities of the workplace and the family increasing, the case for providing paid time off from work for specific family needs is more relevant than ever, and a federal paid leave policy could support the needs of millions of America’s working parents who currently lack access to paid leave through their employers or existing state laws.

Read the full article on paid leave by Aparna Mathur at American Enterprise Institute.