Two senators have recently renewed a push for a tax credit that would encourage businesses to implement paid family leave policies, while several state legislatures across the political spectrum have implemented or are considering their own form of leave plans.

The dual movement reflects the long-standing frustration among many workers that the United States is one of only a handful of countries with no national guaranteed paid leave policy. 

Congress is currently preparing to renegotiate the country’s tax and budget plans for the next several years. Sens. Deb Fischer, a Republican, and Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, are looking to enshrine the Paid Family and Medical Leave tax credit — even amid GOP crackdowns on spending.

That federal credit for businesses has been in place since 2017, and access to paid family leave has grown in that time. But experts say still more needs to be done nationally to reach the majority of workers, who have no access to assured time off for family or medical reasons. 

“Working families need a guarantee, small businesses need a guarantee, the self-employed, who have almost no access to paid leave where there’s no public program, need a guarantee,” said Molly Weston Williamson, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress. This business tax credit “is not a guarantee.”

Paid family and medical leave can encompass a wide range of circumstances, from childbirth to caring for a sick family member. Nationally, just 27 percent of private-sector workers had  access to paid family leave in 2023 — a jump from 10 percent in 2010 — and its availability is still concentrated among the country’s highest earners, according to the most recent data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Thirteen states and Washington, D.C., allow or will allow workers and employers to pay into an insurance-like system over time. Employees can then receive guaranteed leave as needed, resulting in far more coverage for those in the private sector than the tax credit system allows, Williamson said.

Last week, Fischer and King reintroduced legislation to enshrine the Paid Family and Medical Leave tax credit, which incentivizes businesses to provide such leave for their employees and receive a credit of up to 25 percent of their wages or premiums through Paid Family Leave insurance. The bill would also reduce a minimum employment period requirement to six months to include younger people with less tenure at their workplace, as well as require more targeted outreach to increase awareness of this credit.

Fischer said Thursday on the Senate floor that she views making the credit permanent as a way to do the “most good with the smallest price tag.”

But some advocates believe this approach is a “dead end” within the wider national conversation surrounding family and medical leave. The plans implemented by states are more effective at helping workers, they say.

“We know that’s an investment that works and that’s sustainable and that reaches low-income workers,” said Jessica Mason, senior policy analyst at the National Partnership for Women and Families. “To see this distracting conversation at the federal level, to try to throw good money after bad … just really feels like a lot of wasted time and effort.”

Fischer proposed this tax credit as the country’s first paid family and medical leave policy through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which is set to expire and be renegotiated this year. The Nebraska Republican says she views making the credit permanent as a solution.

“We’re looking at it as a solution for paid leave for small businesses and hourly workers,” Fischer told The 19th. “Obviously, there’s paid leave that’s offered, that corporations can do for large businesses, this directly affects small businesses. It’s a tax credit, not an entitlement program.”

King’s office did not respond to requests for comment. 

The impact of the federal tax credit on American workers is unclear, but experts say data indicates that the benefits of efforts to expand paid leave have been concentrated among the top earners. One Treasury Department study from 2020 shows 88 percent of tax credit money was claimed by corporations with at least $1 billion in revenue.

State policies have been more successful in reaching workers of varying incomes and industries, experts said. Laws that create these insurance-like programs are more easily utilized by small businesses, Williamson said, while the federal tax credit provides a relatively low amount of financial support with the 25 percent return.

“State policies have really paved the way for federal progress,” said Vicki Shabo, a senior fellow for paid leave at New America. “We’ve learned a lot about the benefit levels that are required [and] the kinds of family definitions that help ensure people can take leave.”

And while Republican ideology is typically less likely to include heavy support for government programs, the ground has been shifting on proposing leave policies at the state level for public employees, Mason said.

Politically purple and red states like Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana have been moving toward expanded leave policies for the public sector. The state House in deep red Mississippi unanimously passed a paid parental leave bill for many state employees at the end of last month. 

“What we’re hoping to do is raise the bar and say, ‘Look what we’re doing, everybody else, get on board,’” Republican state Rep. Kevin Felsher, who helmed the bill, told Mississippi Today. “It sounds like it could be a good recruitment and retention tool for state employees at a time where they’re hard to keep. The state doesn’t pay as much” as the private sector.

Nationally, the conversation about paid family and medical leave has been jumbled. The issue came up during the 2016 campaign cycle, with Democratic candidates, Trump and then-candidate Marco Rubio — who later introduced legislation that would use new parents’ future Social Security payments to finance three months of leave — all weighing in. 

But as a majority-Republican Congress and the White House debate government spending and cuts, passage of a comprehensive policy outside of a credit seems further this year than previous cycles.

“There are a lot of politicians on the Hill right now who are claiming to be looking for government wasteful spending, and there it is,” Mason said. “The tax credit … doesn’t do what sponsors claim it will — and instead of calling it quits on something that’s not working and finding a better approach, people are trying to double down.”

Grace Panetta contributed to this report.