DOL allocates $1.25M to help states study paid leave

The Labor Department announced Monday its allocating $1.25 million to help states across the country study paid how best to develop and implement paid leave programs.

The funds are in addition to the $500,000 the agency gave the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Montana and Rhode Island last year. The announcement came during a Google+ Hangout on paid leave hosted by Latifa Lyles, director of the departments Women’s Bureau, which will be administering the funds.

“Too many workers across the U.S. lack even a single day of paid leave to care for their families or themselves,” said Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said in a release. “A worker shouldn’t be forced to choose between employment they need and the family they love.”

In January, President Obama signed a memorandum giving federal employees six weeks of paid leave for the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child.

Out of 185 countries and territories in the world surveyed by the International Labor Organization, the United States is one of only two that does not offer paid maternity leave. Papua New Guinea is the other

 The Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees unpaid, job-protected leave for workers to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, a seriously ill family member, or their own serious health condition, but the Labor Department said many workers, especially low-wage workers, can’t afford to take unpaid time off.