By now, you're familiar with the data point: The United States ranks dead last among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries when it comes to paid parental leave offerings.

It's the only developed country to offer zero weeks of leave to new mothers at the federal level. Only about one in five workers in the U.S. has access to paid leave after the birth or adoption of a new child. One-fourth of new mothers goes back to work within two weeks of giving birth.

In addition, while the only federal legislation governing leave in the United States, the Family and Medical Leave Act, offers unpaid leave to some workers, it's most often not used for parental leave. Instead, it typically goes toward medical leave. Furthermore, it limits leave to 12 weeks—much less than is healthy, according to a 2017 study from my colleagues at New America's Better Life Lab.

On the one hand, there's good reason to think that the U.S.'s terrible record on parental leave may soon be in the past. Now, seven states and Washington, D.C., offer or will soon offer paid leave through low-cost, social insurance-style plans (think of it working in the same way as Social Security or Medicare—you pay in a small amount regularly and take it out when you need it). Major companies are even beginning to out-compete each other by announcing more generous and more accessible policies than the last. And the public's support for a federal leave program doesn't just stop at mothers. Fathers today increasingly see the many-pronged value of having time off from work to welcome a new child: more time for bonding, more time to do hands-on caregiving, and more time to be active participants in their rapidly changing homes.

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