Beltway Confidential

Why don’t conservative organizations offer more paid family leave?

By Madeline Fry Schultz
Published September 23, 2021 4:10pm ET
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Why don’t conservative organizations offer more paid family leave?
Under the1993 Family Medical Leave Act, employers with 50 workers or more must allow 12 weeks of leave every year to workers so they care for a new child, but in most cases, the leave isn't paid. The U.S. stands in contrast to other industrialized nations that have set a mandatory or subsidized leave policy. | pixdeluxe

Republicans have been warming to the idea of paid parental leave. What once was another expansion of the federal welfare state is now a popular form of pro-family legislation (and pro-natalism in a country with a declining birth rate).

In 2019, Sens. Joni Ernst and Mike Lee introduced a budget-neutral parental leave plan that would allow new parents to take up to three months of paid leave through Social Security. In essence, parents could take a few months off now in exchange for working a few months extra before retiring.

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Conservatives Family paid family leave Republican Party