Calls for Permanent Paid Leave Grow as Temporary Measures Fade

House Democrats, steeled by the pandemic, are eager to advance permanent paid leave legislation in tandem with temporary protections the Biden administration is expected to try to push through Congress in coming weeks.

Federal and state Covid-19 legislation provided for or expanded some paid leave benefits to more than 87 million Americans for first time last year, emboldening Democrats who have long sought permanent, job-protected paid family and sick leave legislation. Now the Democratic Party holds the political levers in Washington to enact those kinds of sweeping reforms, but there are signals that pre- and post-pandemic concessions could serve to ...