Paid day off for pregnant women could go national as work movement

Paid leave for prenatal care is poised to turn out to be a national women’s health initiative. That is now that Latest York has turn out to be the primary state to mandate a standalone entitlement to paid prenatal leave.

In April, Latest York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an amendment to Latest York labor law to require employers to offer as much as 20 hours of paid leave in a 52-week period for pregnant employees to attend prenatal medical appointments and procedures. The availability takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.

“I feel other states and other governors who share the same set of values in prioritizing women’s health, hopefully will follow,” said Reshma Saujani, founder and chief executive of Mothers First, a campaign of the nonprofit Girls Who Code.

The federal government’s Family and Medical Leave Act provides job-protected leave for prenatal care or when an expecting mother is unable to work due to her pregnancy. The act entitles covered employees to as much as 12 work weeks of leave in a 12-month period. Nevertheless, while their job is protected during this time, the leave is unpaid. 

Washington D.C. has enacted the same law to what Latest York recently passed, allowing for as much as two weeks of paid leave to receive pregnancy-related medical care. The D.C. law also allows for one more 12 weeks of paid leave after a baby is born.

These laws are predicated on medical research showing that prenatal health care tends to lead to higher health outcomes for moms and their babies.

“The concept is that working moms mustn’t need to dip into their sick leave bank and draw down on that bank for health care related to having a baby,” said Harris M. Mufson, partner with law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and a member of the firm’s labor and employment practice. “There is a view that they need to have a separate bank for that condition — that that is appropriate and properly supportive of working moms.”

No federal labor law precedent exists

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 offer paid leave to employees needing day off for family and medical needs. Likewise, there is no federal law that covers paid day off for prenatal care.

Paid leave will not be a partisan issue, nevertheless it hasn’t necessarily been top-of-mind for legislators, Saujani said. “Federally, it’s never passed because I feel it’s never been prioritized.” 

On the state level, greater than a dozen states and not less than one local jurisdiction have passed laws requiring private employers to offer paid family and medical leave to their employees. All of the laws allow paid leave for the birth of a baby 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, akin to prenatal care, based on Westlaw.

As of January, some 14 states — including California, Colorado, Connecticut and Delaware, in addition to Washington D.C. and town and county of San Francisco — have enacted paid family and medical leave programs.

For its part, Latest York embedded the brand new prenatal protections inside its paid sick leave laws. No less than 18 states, plus Washington D.C. and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have passed statewide paid sick leave laws, based on Westlaw. Three of those state laws — Illinois, Maine, and Nevada — allow paid leave to be taken for any reason, not just for sick leave.

States more prone to follow Latest York’s lead

States which might be most certainly to pass laws requiring paid leave for prenatal care are those who are inclined to offer greater worker protections, akin to California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois, Latest Jersey and Connecticut, said Kelly M. Cardin, shareholder with Ogletree Deakins who focuses on employment law. “I feel it’s something that might spread,” she said.

The concept of requiring paid prenatal advantages might be especially compelling given the federal Pregnant Staff Fairness Act, which President Biden signed into law in December 2022 and which went into effect on June 27, 2023. In April, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its final regulation to perform the law, which becomes effective on June 18.

Generally, the PWFA requires employers to offer employees with a “reasonable accommodation” to the known limitations of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless doing so causes an undue hardship. The law doesn’t replace laws which might be more protective of staff on this respect. Greater than 30 states and cities have laws that require employers to offer accommodations for pregnant staff.

Given the federal government’s give attention to pregnant staff through the PWFA, it’s likely that states —especially more progressive ones — will follow with additional protections, Cardin said. It also follows a general trend of some states attempting to level the playing field for staff in terms of worker advantages.

Few staff benefit from paid leave programs

After all, it isn’t only a matter of passing the laws; it is important to make certain women know they exist, Saujani said. 

Though a state like Latest York has a broadly commended paid family leave program, the utilization of this system stays low, at only 2% of eligible staff, based on data provided to CNBC by Mothers First. Saujani said that is reflective of a national trend where only 3% to five% of eligible staff take any paid leave. 

“If nobody knows it exists, they are not going to find a way to access it,” said Saujani, whose organization has built a website that uses AI to assist people determine their eligibility for paid family leave in Latest York. Saujani said Mothers First is within the means of rolling this tool out for other states that provide paid leave to assist residents of those states work out whether or not they are eligible.