Paid leave has long been a Democratic cause, one that candidates rallied around at the debate Wednesday night. Now, it’s also a Republican one: They have recently embraced it with a flurry of new bills and a White House summit next month. The debate revealed minor divisions in the candidates’ approaches; the bigger differences, though, are between the two parties.
What is the main sticking point between the parties?
The big divide is over which workers would get paid time off and where the money would come from.
In general, Democrats support starting a new federal fund, financed by a payroll tax increase, that would provide paid leave for new parents and for workers with an illness or injury or with sick family members. (Three-quarters of people who use federal unpaid leave use it for their own health reasons or to care for family members other than newborns.)
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