Paid Family Leave Policy not a distant dream anymore

As you read this a legislation is being passed through Congress that allows employees to legally avail themselves of 12 weeks of paid family and sick leave, if this gets passed the United States will no longer be a part of the small number of countries without such a legislature. Although the idea for such a policy has been floating for a while now, the recent pandemic and public health crisis provided the much-needed fuel to accelerate the policy. World Policy Analysis Centre claims that 180 countries around the world have mandated such a policy while the US remains in the bracket of 11 countries that haven't done so yet. Norway and Japan provide 52 weeks of family leave. Researchers believe that employers will benefit from such a policy as it will improve the quality of work produced by the employee, reduce stress and decrease the number of sick leaves.

If passed the policy would be administered by the U.S. Treasury Department or the Social Security Administration to ensure that all employees get the benefits. All workers will qualify for the paid leave as long as they earned wages in the past 6 months. The plan will be implemented in 2 years, that is by  2023.

Source: CNBC