Steve Adubato is joined by Debra Lancaster, Executive Director at the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University, to highlight the importance of paid family leave and the need for national policy change.

Steve Adubato asks Lancaster about the government agency involved in Paid Family Leave and the need for paid time off to care for a loved one. In 2009, New Jersey was the second state in the nation to pass Paid Family Leave. Lancaster explains, “Most workers are eligible to take advantage of it; you can take up to 12 weeks of paid leave to bond with a newborn or a new child in your home, to care for a loved one who’s ill or to cope with domestic violence or sexual violence. The paid leave could be taken 12 weeks at a time, so consecutively or over 56 days, that’s known as an intermittent leave, and workers are eligible for up to 85 percent of their wages while they’re on leave and that’s capped it in 2022 $993.00 per week and the Department of Labor is charged with implementing the policy in New Jersey.”

Lancaster also explains why there is no federal policy and instead is state by state.