Paid family leave benefits rising in some sectors, regions

NEW YORK (AP) — The call for paid family leave on the Democratic party platform is the most ambitious attempt by a major party in years to reverse the United States' status as the only industrialized nation without any standard for paid time off for new parents.

Last week's convention put paid family leave on the list of workplace election issues along with the minimum wage and equal pay.

While the Republican platform makes no specific reference to paid family leave, the GOP in 2015 called for establishing a "flexible credit hour program" in which workers could exchange overtime hours worked for future leave time.

While Americans generally support paid family leave — a poll conducted this spring by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 72 percent of Americans 40 and older support the benefit — efforts to adopt a national standard haven't gone anywhere.

More reason for optimism is that a few states and several competitive industries have slowly been bolstering paid parental leave laws and policies.

The technology sector leads the private sector in parental leave offerings.

The company's benefits also include a career and family transition program that gives new moms and dads a coach to help them better balance work and family.

For those working in the service, manufacturing, farming or construction industries, worker access to paid family leave is mostly under 10 percent and stagnant, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2015 and 2011.