“Family lives have changed dramatically in recent decades but our policies have remained frozen in a Leave-it-to-Beaver 1950s world which no longer exists,” said Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara).

The United States is one of the only industrialized nations that does not offer paid leave to new parents. This flies in the face of extensive, long-standing research on the importance of the first thousand days of life.

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg discusses paid family and medical leave during an interview with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang.

Senator Angus King is standing with local business owners and showing his support for new paid family and medical leave legislation.

No matter what strides individual working mothers make, the country’s lack of a paid family leave policy remains a burden to women and parents, in ways both big and small.

Because FMLA leave is unpaid and only applies to some workers, many others are still forced to make the difficult decision between being there for loved ones or returning to work out of financial necessity.

While politicians in Washington, D.C. have started talking about paid family leave, some U.S. businesses have been putting such policies into practice.

The American public overwhelmingly supports policies that guarantee workers paid leave if they have a child, get sick or need to care for a family member. Yet the United States is the only developed nation that lacks a paid family leave mandate.

Paid family and medical leave is now the law in our state. This great breakthrough will provide workers economic security in times where they need time off to care for themselves or their families, starting in January 2020.

“We strongly believe this is the right thing to do,” said Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women & Families in Washington, D.C., which supports the Democrats’ bill. “Why should some people have this benefit and not others based on where they live or the job they have, when it’s clear everyone needs it?”

Washington’s new paid family and medical leave policy makes me proud of my state. It’s not just the groundbreaking policy, which fills a need for every worker in Washington. It’s also the way our state government worked together to hammer out a paid-leave bill that people across the political spectrum wanted to support.

Even with the rise of sites like Glassdoor and Monster, many women are still left wondering exactly how prospective employers handle gender-specific issues in the workplace like family leave and pay equity. To find out, female job seekers are turning to Fairygodboss, a job review site exclusively for women.

Taking leave from work to welcome a new child isn’t easy for a lot of parents — and LGBT families often have to navigate policies that were designed with cisgender, straight couples in mind.

Gillibrand explains the policy proposed by the Trump administration covers only parental leave, as opposed to a wider range of life events, such as paid time for employees who must care for sick family members. She also points out that the suggested means to pay for the plan is not realistic.

“Only 14 percent of Americans have access to paid family leave. While my husband and I are fortunate enough to be able to get by without my income in the short term, this time off will likely affect our long-term well-being, economic and otherwise,” writes Elissa Strauss.

The legislation offers a progressive financing mechanism that covers close to 100 percent of low-wage workers’ income, meaning workers will no longer be forced to choose between a paycheck and their family.

“A big reason why I went to work for Starbucks seven years ago was because of their inclusiveness of the LGBTQ communities … That’s why I was so surprised to learn that the paid leave offered to partners (the moniker for store employees) does not extend to fathers or adoptive parents,” writes Niko Walker.

In a LinkedIn announcement, Microsoft’s Chief People Officer, Kathleen Hogan, wrote that the company is effecting a new global benefit for their employees: family caregiver leave.

Ivanka Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are teaming up for a private forum with members of Congress on “pro-family tax reform initiatives.”

MacKenzie Nicholson was pregnant with her second baby when she found out her mother had a brain tumor. She was forced to take time off to care for her, which cut into the vacation and sick time she was saving to supplement the three weeks of paid maternity her company offers.