The Case for Going Big on Paid Leave

Optimist Economy

Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi

Public Policy, Economics, Government, Economy

4.9 • 829 Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Paid family and medical leave is a confusing mess: only 27% of private-sector workers get paid leave from their employer. Some others are covered by state programs, but those vary. The rest of us scramble to patch together short-term disability with other paid time off, if we have it. Meanwhile, the United States instead has a federal Family Medical Leave Act that protects unpaid time off. Truth is, sooner or later, nearly everyone needs time away from work to care for a sick spouse, a new baby, a dying parent, or to recover from one’s own illness or injury. And they shouldn’t have to go broke to do it. An idea this popular — supported by about 80% of Americans in polls — shouldn’t be this hard. If paid family and medical leave were added to Social Security, that would give every worker benefits that follow them across jobs and states. The infrastructure already exists. But there’s a lot of heel-dragging in Congress because expanding Social Security can’t be done before dealing with its long-term funding.

Read more:

Paid Leave Works: Evidence from State Programs [National Partnership for Women & Families 2023] — A good primer on paid family and medical leave.
Economic Effects of Offering a Federal Paid Family and Medical Leave Program [Congressional Budget Office 2021] — CBO analysis of a version of paid leave that was proposed in the Build Back Better Act, but that died in the Senate.
A National Paid Leave Program Would Help Workers, Families [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities 2021] — Outline of what would be in a comprehensive program.
New parents aren’t the only people who need paid family leave [Urban Institute 2018] — Pretty self-explanatory.
Paid Leave for Illness, Medical Needs, and Disabilities: Issues and Answers [Brookings and the American Enterprise Institute 2020] — Chapter on how this could be implemented from a joint Brookings-AEI project.
Paid Leave Working Group Request for Information Response [Urban Institute 2024] — Response to Congressional working group’s request for input on paid family leave.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You have this note in our outline about the 1930s, and I'm shocked that you haven't gotten there.
0:05.4	I just thought maybe our listeners needed a break from going back to the 1930s.
0:11.2	Have you met our listeners?
0:19.8	Hello and welcome to Optimist Economy. I'm Catherine. I'm Robin. On this show, we believe the U.S. economy can be better, and we talk about how to get there one problem and solution at a time.
0:36.4	At the top of our show, we like to make a few announcements.
0:39.5	First, I'm going to say that this episode is brought to you in part by Teresa in
0:43.5	Hallowell, Maine, who joined us as a spiritual sponsor.
0:46.4	Thank you, Teresa.
0:48.7	Also, we are going to be recording another Q&A episode in a few weeks, so you can email us at optimist.com. Send us your
0:58.1	questions or your concerns about the economy and we'll, well, Catherine, we'll talk about them.
1:03.9	At length. At length. At some length. You can call us and leave your question. We're also recording
1:10.7	audio reviews of the show.
1:13.0	We love the reviews that you guys have left for us on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.
1:18.7	And if you would like to do an audio version of that, call us at 202-643-0295.
1:30.7	God, I hope that number's right. or somebody's going to be really confused.
1:31.5	Oh, sure.
1:39.9	Yeah. My last announcement is, as of today, we have 410 ratings to our show on Apple Podcasts. I found out that if we hit 595, we will be among the top 1% of podcasts and optimists. I think we can do it. You don't even have to write a review. All you have to do is click the little five-star thing. So if you would do that for us, that would be excellent. I can't believe that we would be in the top 1% of podcasts. But, you know, it's where we can get it.
2:04.5	And I want to make sure it's clear that if we make it to the top 1%, that is how I'm going to refer to us in the Royal League, of like, well, it's the top 1%.
2:08.8	You know, we should pay more in taxes.
2:11.2	Exactly.
2:12.9	No, all right, well, we have a couple announcements.
2:17.4	The first is the show news.
	...

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