Paid Leave Inches Ahead in States, as Congress Avoids a Mandate

The latest Covid-19 stimulus package isn’t likely to yield a federal mandate for paid leave—despite what advocates see as a strong public health impetus—leaving the issue for now to cities and states, where such mandates continue to spread slowly but surely.

The $1.9 trillion stimulus package proposed by President Joe Biden initially included a revival and expansion of last year’s mandate for employers to provide virus-related paid leave. But the stimulus legislation pending in the U.S. House leaves out that requirement, instead opting to extend federal tax credits for employers who voluntarily offer emergency paid leave, just as Congress did ...