The US should adopt a federal paid leave policy in order to help small businesses succeed, says a spokesperson with Paid Leave for the U.S. Meanwhile, the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) is urging its members to avoid advocating for “tax hikes and new mandates.” | THE HILL

Republicans should lead the effort to make paid leave a reality, following through on one of President Trump’s priorities, writes Jean Evans, a former state representative in Missouri. It’s a bipartisan issue and “critical to our efforts to promote stronger families, to improve morale in our workforce, and to keep Missourians self-sufficient,” she argues. | THE MISSOURI TIMES

The rise in the number of people who experience symptoms from COVID-19 over the long haul highlights the need for access to paid leave, advocates say. “I feel like we’ve been kind of left and forgotten about, and because there’s a lot of us long-haulers that are grocery store workers, that are working in hospitals and taking care of all the people that were brought down by this pandemic,” says Roisin Monroe, an insurance company employee who had to quit her job seven months after contracting COVID-19 due to ongoing symptoms. | THE HILL

In order for the nation to fully recover from COVID-19, Americans should have access to paid sick leave, writes Robert Apodaca. After he contracted the virus, his recovery lasted 123 days before he was able to “walk a mile again without feeling out of breath,” he says. | SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

Black Americans are more likely than others to be part of the workforce demographic without access to paid leave, a new report by Prudential reveals. Additionally, Prudential found that 69% of Americans would not be able to financially cover an unexpected emergency even before COVID-19 because they are living paycheck to paycheck. | MARKETSCREENER

Senator Rubio is among the leaders on the right who have advocated and gained more support for paid leave, writes Holly Raschien in the Miami Herald. Congress should follow through on those efforts in 2018 by passing some kind of federal paid leave with bipartisan support, she argues. | MIAMI HERALD

Vast numbers of the American workforce are unlikely to take time off at the birth of a child out of fear they will lose their job a new study reveals, highlighting how the adoption of such a policy could strengthen families in the US. Statistics pulled from a sample of 8,500 workers at the top 85 companies in the country show that 28% of women, 38% of men, 49% of Black workers, and 53% of Hispanic workers share this fear of losing employment even though they are working jobs paying a median wage of only $12.75 per hour. | YAHOO NEWS

Paid family leave affects more than finances, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says, noting that it can improve the health of the 100 million people in the US who do not have access to a single day of paid leave after the birth of a child. In research conducted by the foundation, they discovered that only 7% of American workers in the lowest wage bracket are offered paid leave by their employers. | WBTW

As many as three million workers in North Carolina have survived the pandemic so far without access to paid sick days the North Carolina Justice Center estimates. People who don’t receive paid sick days include essential workers, and legislators in the state are considering two proposals to address the issue. | THE CHARLOTTE POST

74% of people who vote Republican support creating plans for paid leave, a new poll reveals. The survey included 1,070 likely voters and included polling for House and Senate races, which also showed that candidates do better when advocating for paid leave. | VOX

The US should adopt a paid leave plan in order to improve quality care for seniors, writes Kerri Bickford of Topsham, Maine. The global pandemic particularly highlighted the need for such a plan, because “We’re now approaching 800 COVID-related deaths in Maine, and only 54 of those deaths were people under the age of 60.” | PORTLAND PRESS HERALD

Adopting a paid leave plan in the US is ultimately about economics, writes Republican Committeewoman and small business owner Beth Bloch. To make her case, she cites research from Rutgers University that found that “women who return to work after taking paid leave are 39% less likely to go on public assistance.” | LOOTPRESS

The US should adopt a new paid leave plan such as the one proposed by former President Trump, writes former Branson, Mo. mayor Karen Best. “At some point in everyone’s life, no matter which party you support, you will need to either give or receive care,” she argues. | THE MISSOURI TIMES

A pair of conservatives in the US House have introduced another paid leave proposal adding to the list of options sponsored by right-leaning legislators in recent years. The new legislation has been introduced by Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) and Kevin Brady (R-TX). | FINANCIAL REGULATION NEWS

An estimated 33.6 million people in the US, or roughly 24% of the civilian workforce, lack access to paid sick leave according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The smart employer would recognize the wisdom of paid sick days: primarily, preventing the spread of sickness to other employees or customers,” argues the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. | SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL

Sheetz has introduced a new paid leave plan for its employees that includes 12 weeks for new mothers, plus two weeks for their partners. Travis Sheetz, the president and COO of the family-owned convenience store and gas station chain on the East Coast, called the employee offering both “overdue” and “the best investment we can make.” | WDBJ7

U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and an attorney for the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) advocated for paid leave plans that allow for maximum flexibility for employers and workers at last week’s Senate hearing. "Flexibility for the employer and the worker makes it work for all involved,” Burr said, noting that “We should make sure we give business a lot of flexibility to help employers make paid leave work.” | SHRM

Children who receive more attention from their parents in the first five years of life tend to be healthier as adults and reach higher levels of education, writes Samuel Hamond. At the same time, mothers who do not get at least twelve weeks of paid leave have a higher likelihood of unstable marriages, stress, anxiety, and depression. | NEWSWEEK

A quarter of women in the US workforce have considered quitting due to challenges with balancing work and childcare during the pandemic, new research by Prudential Group Insurance reveals. Additionally, 20% have fallen behind in paying bills, leading the company’s president to describe paid family leave as “an unmet need in America.” | INSURANCENEWSNET

“Women who become mothers are left to grapple with changes—in lifestyle, but also in emotions, motivations, and questions of purpose and identity,” writes Amber Lapp, changes “that we feel acutely but are little understood by a world in which the expectation too often is that you take your six weeks of leave (if that) and bounce back to life as before.” One single mother she interviewed who would have preferred to take six months of leave shared that after five weeks of unpaid leave after the birth of a child, she tried to go back to work, but her workplace sent her home because of her doctor’s advice to take six weeks. | AMERICAN COMPASS