The Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) has proved inadequate. Many workers cannot afford the loss of income required for the twelve weeks unpaid leave allowed under the law. Many new mothers take two weeks’ leave or less because they cannot afford more. If an employee gets hurt and needs medical leave before completing their first year at a company, they are out of luck. Many people work for small businesses that don’t even provide FMLA leave. And if an employee has a grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, or domestic partner who’s sick and needs care, FMLA leave doesn’t apply in that scenario.
#PaidLeaveForAll has become a rallying cry for U.S. worker advocates in recent years—and the advocacy is paying off. Some form of paid leave law will soon be in effect in thirteen states and the District of Columbia—including Minnesota, where payments and employment protections for people who need time away from work for personal health or caregiving will take effect in January 2026. Most of those paid leave laws were enacted in the last ten years. At the federal level, the Paid Leave for All advocacy campaign states that it has come “within a vote of making paid leave federal law.” And 2024 vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who championed his state’s new leave law, opined that the federal policy that would make the biggest difference for the U.S. populace would be paid family and medical leave.
Paid leave advocacy has proceeded in tandem with similar campaigns for workplace pregnancy accommodations, which led to passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) in 2022, and the movement for paid sick days, which are now available in at least eighteen states and the District of Columbia, with ballot initiatives passed in 2024 in Missouri, Nebraska, and Alaska. Notably, the push for paid sick days has attracted backing from voters across the political spectrum.
All of these initiatives seek to make the U.S. workplace more equitable. That is, they are designed to make working easier for employees who are navigating workplace barriers—whether because they are sick or disabled, pregnant, caregiving, or poor. These laws provide affirmative workplace adjustments, such as accommodations or leave, that help workers remain in the workforce.