US Paid Leave Debate Exposes Safety Net Divide in World's Largest Economy

At a hearing titled "Balancing Careers and Care: Examining Innovative Approaches to Paid Leave", Congressman Ryan Mackenzie, the Republican chair of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, said the US still has no federal law guaranteeing paid leave, even though the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) sets rules for when workers can take unpaid time off.

"There is currently no federal law that outlines paid leave benefits," Mackenzie said, calling it a "personal" issue as he described his family's experience raising young children and relying on his wife's employer policy. "Right now, my wife is able to watch our newborn daughter because of her company's paid leave policy."

Mackenzie cited the "latest figures from Dol" showing "only 27 per cent of private sector workers in the United States have access to paid family leave benefits through their employer", a statistic that framed the debate: in a country with the world's largest economy, paid leave remains a benefit many workers cannot count on.

A Democratic lawmaker described the stakes in blunt terms. The United States, the member said, is "one of the only wealthy countries in the world that does not guarantee paid family and medical leave to workers", leaving "over 100 million workers" unsure if they can afford to care for a new child, an ill parent, or their own health "without risking their job or finances.

The lawmaker argued the issue is also unequal, saying access is "dramatically uneven" for "low wage workers and part time workers", and urged Congress to "set a strong federal floor" through "universal paid family leave", warning against what the member called "voluntary models" and "partnerships with private insurance companies" that are "low quality and have not meaningfully expanded access".

Witnesses mapped the complicated US reality: a patchwork of state programmes, private insurance options, and federal rules that employers must navigate - a system that even its supporters admit can confuse workers and companies operating across state lines.

Julie Squire, testifying for the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, said "a total of 13 states and the District of Columbia have passed state paid family and medical leave". She added that "the most recently implemented programs are Minnesota and Delaware, with both states having launched on January 1st", while "Maine is set to offer benefits later this year".

Squire said state programmes typically provide "partial wage replacement up to a certain number of weeks" for "a medical need for themselves or a loved one" or for time with "a newborn baby or adopted child". But she said the spread of different state rules creates a growing demand for "more inter-state coordination", because basic questions - such as how long a worker must be employed to qualify - "can vary state by state".

For Indians used to national schemes and centralised rules in many sectors, the US approach can look strikingly decentralised: the benefits a worker can access may depend heavily on where they live, where their employer is based, and which state's forms and definitions apply.

Adrienne Schweer of the Bipartisan Policy Centre brought the policy argument down to a human scale, describing a high-risk pregnancy and returning to the Pentagon quickly after giving birth. "I was exhausted from a newborn, I was barely healed from the birth," she said, adding she had "very few days left" after using sick and vacation days.

Schweer said the centre found "over 60 million Americans are balancing work and caregiving every day", including parents of young children, caregivers for ageing relatives, and "sandwiched" families handling both. She said parents want "flexibility" and that "access to paid leave and affordable child care keeps them connected to the workforce".

Elyse Shaw of the Centre for Law and Social Policy urged Congress to go further, saying paid leave is needed for more than babies alone. "Only a quarter of leaves under FMLA are for parental leave, but over half are for medical leave, and 1 in 5 is to care for a family member's serious health condition," she said. Shaw argued that "only one in every four private sector workers has access to paid family leave through their employer, leaving 106 million" without that support.

Shaw also attacked a key House proposal, H.R. 3089, saying "it does not go far enough" and adding, "H.R. 3089 is actually not a paid leave bill. It is a paid leave grant program." She said the bill includes "no requirement for job protection", warning that without protections, many workers fear retaliation and do not seek leave.

From the employer side, Greta Kessler, speaking on behalf of the Society for Human Resource Management, said the workforce is under strain. "In 2025, nearly 7 in 10 organisations reported that they have difficulty in recruiting full-time employees," she said, arguing that paid leave has become "an essential part of attracting talent and retaining it".

But Kessler said running paid leave across the US is complicated. "Mandatory programs exist in 13 states plus Washington D.C., but each has differing eligibility rules, benefit formulas, and administrative requirements," she said, adding employers must also coordinate with federal laws such as "FMLA" and "the Ada". She said differing rules can enable abuse, allowing people "to stack leave", which makes it harder to detect fraud, rather than use them concurrently, which is really what was intended.

- IANS