Will Pennsylvania Pass Paid Family Leave? Here’s What Legislators Are Proposing

Most Americans will face a situation where they’ll have to care for a baby or a sick or disabled loved one, or suffer a serious illness or injury themselves.

Yet the United States is the only industrialized nation that does not offer some form of paid family leave at the national level. 

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires private employers with at least 50 employees and all government agencies to offer 12 weeks leave for childbirth, adoption or the serious illness of one’s self or a close relative–but that leave is not required to be paid.

In 2023, only 27% of civilian workers and 28% of state and local government workers had access to paid family leave, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Most people cannot sustain their families for long periods of time without an income, and this lack of support adds stress, economic strain and poorer health outcomes to already fraught situations.

Thirteen states mandate paid family leave, but so far, Pennsylvania does not. A 2025 poll of Pennsylvania voters by Osage Research showed that 81% of Pennsylvania voters support paid family and medical leave.  

State Sen. Maria Collett introduced the Family Care Act, bipartisan legislation to establish a statewide family and medical leave program. She first introduced the legislation in 2019. After being re-introduced in 2025, it has been referred to the labor and industry committee. (It passed out of this committee in 2024, but did not go any further.) A companion bill has also been introduced in the state House.

Sen. Collett is a registered nurse, the mother of a school-age son, and was the caregiver for her father until he passed away in 2020. “It’s not an unusual story in this state,” she says.

She was prompted to propose the statewide family and medical leave act in 2018, when parents Jackie Swain and Chris Sheeder came to her after their infant daughter, Emersyn, died of a congenital heart defect. 

“They came to me in their grief and said they had to split their time between being at the bedside with their dying child and going to work to make sure that they didn’t lose their home, so that they were able to pay their bills,” Sen. Collett says.

After months in the hospital, their daughter tragically died. “They told me, ‘We don’t want other parents in this position. Can the state help with that?’”

Under the Act, all workers would make small contributions from their weekly earnings to the leave program, which would be administered by the Department of Labor and Industry. Workers could use the fund when needed, keep their jobs, and return to work rather than relying on state human services programs. Leave benefits would be calculated on a graduated scale, so they would be accessible to all workers, regardless of income. 

“This would make a big difference for workers all across the Commonwealth,” Sen. Collett says.

The fund would allow eligible employees to care for themselves in case of serious illness or injury, care for a close family member with a serious health condition, care for a new child (through birth or adoption), or care for a member of the military in qualifying circumstances. 

State Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, another co-sponsor of the Senate bill, says, “No Pennsylvanian should ever have to choose between taking time away from their job to provide care to a loved one or to welcome a new child into their lives, and putting food on the table or keeping their lights on. Yet, a majority of working Pennsylvanians don’t have Paid Family and Medical Leave through their employers, making this a devastating reality for far too many of our neighbors.”

Small businesses, who often can’t afford to offer such benefits, could do so through this program, because it is funded by a small employee payroll deduction. The program would also help rural families, where it often falls to family members to provide that care since those areas have fewer adult day care centers and fewer caregivers who can offer in-home health care. 

For maternal and infant health, paid leave is associated with better birth outcomes and greater duration of breastfeeding, according to March of Dimes. As written in the text of the bill, individuals who receive paid leave are four times less likely to need food stamps or income subsidies following the birth of a new child, and every month of paid maternity/paternity leave reduces the infant mortality rate by 13%.

Paid medical leave programs help mitigate gender inequity as well, because women are more likely to bear caregiver responsibilities. According to AARP, 61% of caregivers are female, and without paid leave, they are forced to accept lower paying jobs, reduce hours or leave the workforce altogether. 

A 2020 study funded by the March of Dimes Center for Social Science Research and conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), highlights the long-term effects of paid family leave on women’s participation in the U.S. workforce. “States that have implemented paid leave policies found that 20% fewer women leave their jobs in the first year after welcoming a child, and up to 50% fewer leave after five years,” according to the report. 

“This program would allow people to be the caregiver to their family member, or take care of themselves in case of a medical issue, and at the same time, ensure to their employer that they’re not going anywhere once they have given that care or their illness or surgery is over,” Sen. Collett says. “I see it as a benefit for everyone. It reduces turnover, improves morale and it helps to level the playing field and build health equity as well.”

Paid family leave systems already exist in California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, New York and D.C.; bills have been introduced in other states. The existing programs have been studied and shown to reduce stress and improve health outcomes in addition to economic benefits. 

A 2020 paper by the National Bureau of Economic research demonstrated that paid leave reduces turnover and increases productivity, and workers are more likely to stay in the workforce, contributing to overall economic growth.

“We know this legislation will not only give working families the tools they need to succeed and thrive,” says Sen. Cappelletti, “but it will also bolster our local economies across the Commonwealth.”