Paid leave for prenatal care should develop into a national women's health initiative. This makes New York the primary state to require an independent right to paid pregnancy leave.
In April: New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a change to New York labor law that requires employers to supply pregnant employees with as much as 20 hours of paid leave during a 52-week period to permit them to attend prenatal medical appointments and procedures. The provision comes into force on January 1, 2025.
“I think other states and other governors who hold similar values in prioritizing women's health will hopefully follow suit,” said Reshma Saujani, founder and executive director of Moms First, a campaign run by the nonprofit Girls Who Code.
The federal government's Family and Medical Leave Act provides job-protected leave for prenatal care or when an expectant mother is unable to work due to her pregnancy. The law grants insured employees the fitting to as much as 12 working weeks of vacation in a 12-month period. During this time, your job stays protected, but the holiday is unpaid.
Washington DC has passed an analogous law Law This is consistent with New York's recent law allowing as much as two weeks of paid leave to receive pregnancy-related medical care. The D.C. law also provides a further 12 weeks of paid leave after the birth of a baby.
These laws are based on medical research showing that prenatal health care tends to guide to higher health outcomes for moms and their babies.
“The concept is that working mothers should not rely on their health insurance for health care related to the birth of a child,” said Harris M. Mufson, partner on the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and member of the Labor Department – and employment practices of the corporate. “The view is that there should be a dedicated bank for this condition – that is appropriate and provides appropriate support for working mothers.”
There isn’t any federal employment law precedent
Although FMLA entitles eligible employees to take as much as 12 weeks of unpaid leave per yr, no federal law generally requires private employers to supply paid leave to employees who need day off for family and medical purposes. Likewise, there is no such thing as a federal law that regulates paid day off for prenatal care.
Paid leave isn't a partisan issue, nevertheless it hasn't necessarily been a top priority for lawmakers, Saujani said. “It was never passed at the federal level because, in my opinion, it was never prioritized.”
At the national level, greater than a dozen states and at the very least one local jurisdiction have passed laws requiring private employers to supply paid family and medical leave to their employees. All laws allow paid leave for the birth of a toddler or to take care of a seriously in poor health member of the family, and a few states also allow paid leave for other reasons, equivalent to prenatal care, in response to Westlaw.
Since January, about 14 states — including California, Colorado, Connecticut and Delaware, in addition to Washington DC and the town and county of San Francisco — have implemented paid family and medical leave programs.
New York, in turn, has integrated the brand new prenatal protections into its paid sick leave laws. According to Westlaw, at the very least 18 states, in addition to Washington DC and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, have enacted nationwide paid sick leave laws. Three of those state laws – Illinois, Maine and Nevada – allow the usage of paid leave for any reason, not only illness.
States usually tend to follow New York's lead
States most probably to pass laws requiring paid leave for prenatal care are those who are likely to offer greater employee protections, equivalent to California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut, said Kelly M. Cardin, shareholder of Ogletree Deakins, who focuses on employment law. “I think it’s something that could spread,” she said.
The concept of requiring paid prenatal services could also be particularly compelling given the federal government Pregnant Workers Fairness Actwhich President Biden signed in December 2022 and took effect on June 27, 2023. In April, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its final regulation implementing the law, which takes effect June 18.
In general, the PWFA requires employers to supply their employees with “reasonable accommodations” for the known limitations of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so poses an undue hardship. The law doesn’t replace laws that provide more protection offer the worker on this regard. More than 30 conditions and cities have laws requiring employers to supply accommodations for pregnant employees.
Given the federal government's concentrate on pregnant employees under the PWFA, it's likely that states — particularly more progressive ones — will adopt additional protections, Cardin said. It also follows a general trend of some states attempting to level the playing field for employees in terms of worker advantages.
Few employees make the most of paid leave programs
Of course, it's not nearly passing laws; It's vital to make sure that women know they exist, Saujani said.
Although a state like New York has a widely praised paid family leave program, utilization of this system stays low, at just 2% of eligible employees. in response to information provided to CNBC by Moms First. Saujani said this reflects a nationwide trend with only 3% to five% of eligible employees taking paid leave.
“If no one knows it exists, they won’t be able to access it,” said Saujani, whose organization built such a system website This uses AI to assist people determine their eligibility for paid family leave in New York. Saujani said Moms First is within the strategy of rolling out this tool to other states that supply paid leave to assist residents of those states discover in the event that they are eligible.
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