I support long paid family leaves, but I find this framing odd:
> The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) grants some mothers and fathers the ability to take 12 weeks unpaid leave and return to a protected job, depending on the size and type of the company. But the law leaves many parents at the mercy of the state in which they live (only three, California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, grant paid leave) or their employers’ individual plans.
Why shouldn’t different states have different leave policies. It’s no weirder for different states to have different leave policies than for Germany to have a different leave policy than France.
For sure. In CA, for example, I think parental leave is (at least partly) categorized as "temporary disability". Employees pay are forced to pay into temporary disability insurance, so it makes sense that when they are then eligible, they get to draw from that fund. It does get weird when a company offers certain benefits to employees in one state versus another though. I'm sure many companies top-up the benefits available in low-benefit states in order to avoid bad feelings/confusion among employees.
> The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) grants some mothers and fathers the ability to take 12 weeks unpaid leave and return to a protected job, depending on the size and type of the company. But the law leaves many parents at the mercy of the state in which they live (only three, California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, grant paid leave) or their employers’ individual plans.
Why shouldn’t different states have different leave policies. It’s no weirder for different states to have different leave policies than for Germany to have a different leave policy than France.