{"id":1957,"date":"2026-05-28T10:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1957"},"modified":"2026-05-28T10:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:04:16","slug":"paid-family-leave-would-benefit-floridas-workers-advocates-say-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1957","title":{"rendered":"Paid family leave would benefit Florida\u2019s workers, advocates say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Karen Anthony experienced complications giving birth to her first baby in 2019, she was not eligible for paid family leave. A short-term disability policy allowed for some recovery time. But when that ran out, despite ongoing health problems,\u00a0she had little choice but to get back to work.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was still recovering. And there I am trying to work again as an engineer. It was just a nightmare,\u201d Anthony said. \u201cAnd that bonding time with my baby was taken away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When her second child was born in 2024, she was working for a Florida company that gave her eight weeks of paid leave on top of a six-week disability policy. The difference, she said, was night and day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to properly heal my body. I was able to properly take care of my child,\u201d she said. \u201cI could take time to breathe and just hold my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

America is the only developed country without national paid family leave. While some states have adopted statewide policies, Florida has not. As a result, mothers in the Sunshine State often return to work within months, or even weeks, after delivery. Some, viewing a short leave as undoable, drop out of the workforce altogether.<\/p>\n

About 76% of Florida workers currently do not have access to paid family leave, according to the Florida Policy Institute.<\/p>\n

A new report from the institute makes the case that the state should mandate a paid leave policy for all workers.<\/p>\n

Florida currently loses $2.8 billion in annual wages from parents who quit working because they do not have paid leave, hurting their family budgets but also their communities, which lose their spending power, and businesses, which face increased turnover costs, the report said.<\/p>\n

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If parents could get up to 12 weeks of paid time off after having a baby, adopting or getting a new foster child, up to 366,000 people would benefit, it added. The leave could be covered by small fees both employees and employers contributed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an outrageous concept because other states have already been doing this,\u201d said Alexis Tsoukalas, senior policy analyst for Florida Policy and author of the report. \u201cAnd almost all the other states who do this have done it in a similar way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida, to date, has made small moves to provide family leave, approving a law in 2023 that requires it for some state workers. The law\u2019s passage was viewed as progress by those pushing for leave policies, and Florida is one of a number of Republican-led states that in recent years have passed such laws, the Stateline news organization reported last year.<\/p>\n

Republicans traditionally opposed required family leave, worrying it would hurt businesses, particularly smaller ones. Republican Gov. Rick Scott in 2013 signed a law that prevents local Florida governments from mandating paid leave policies in the private sector.<\/p>\n

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President George H.W. Bush vetoed the federal Family Medical Leave Act twice, though the law, eventually signed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, requires only that employees can take time off, not that the leave be paid.<\/p>\n

But now economic realities have made leave a more bipartisan issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to attract and retain state employees and teachers, and we\u2019re in competition with everyone around us, and the private sector as well,\u201d Alabama Republican state Rep. Ginny Shaver told Stateline last year, after helping to successfully pass a paid leave law for teachers and other state employees in her state.<\/p>\n

Time off is key, experts say, as returning to work soon after birth can delay women\u2019s recovery from childbirth, increase the likelihood of postpartum depression and interfere with the critical bonding between parent and child. But without paid leave many parents, who for financial reasons must keep their jobs, go back to work despite the struggles.<\/p>\n

Kelly Jarvis said paid leave for her husband, who didn\u2019t get any at his job at a grocery store, would have been a lifesaver. The 36-year-old mother of two quit her job after getting pregnant with her first child because she didn\u2019t have any paid leave. She experienced complications giving birth to that child, including an infected caesarean section wound.<\/p>\n

She had to drive 45 minutes each way from her home in Chuluota to Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies in Orlando every day for four weeks to get her wound cleaned and redressed. Her mother and mother-in-law took turns watching her son while she was at those medical appointments.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI just felt like we just had this child, and we couldn\u2019t even be there for him,\u201d Jarvis said, noting that the situation led to postpartum depression. \u201cI would literally just stay up at night, like staring at my baby because I was worried that he wasn\u2019t getting the things that he needed or that he wasn\u2019t being taken care of properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her second pregnancy, her new baby spent two weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit. Her husband still did not have any leave, so Jarvis had to sit in the hospital alone, wishing for his presence and support but knowing he needed to work.<\/p>\n

Paid leave is good for the workforce and both parents, experts say.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leave is not just about mom recovering postpartum. It\u2019s about this investment in this long-term relationship, and individuals who are caring for this child developing that sense of love and emotional connection to that person,\u201d said Alice Davidson, psychology professor at Rollins College. \u201cResearch shows fathers who take paternity leave are more engaged parents long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paid leave is also politically popular, said Melissa Boteach, chief policy officer for Zero to Three, a Washington D.C. nonprofit advocating for young children.<\/p>\n

In April, Virginia became the fourteenth state to enact a statewide paid leave policy. Washington D.C. also has a paid leave policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitically, it\u2019s a winner,\u201d Boteach said. \u201cWhen you run on it, you win. And when you enact it, people like it and appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Otherwise, families face the same tough choices Jarvis did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt forces these impossible decisions at a time when expenses are rising,\u201d Boteach said. \u201cAnd it affects long term economic security for the family, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony\u2019s doctor told her the stress of having to return to work while still in recovery after her first child\u2019s birth contributed to her postpartum depression and her body\u2019s lack of milk production, forcing her to rely on formula to feed her baby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed out on being able to nourish my child properly. That was the saddest part,\u201d Anthony said. \u201cI was in survival mode. I lost incredible amounts of weight. I just could not take care of my child.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also experienced postpartum depression after her third baby was born in 2025. But by then, she had left her job because the cost of childcare ate up so much of her pay it made more sense to stay home with the children.<\/p>\n

Her husband, an attorney in the U.S. Air Force, got 12-weeks paid family leave, which proved crucial as it allowed him to care for the children and Anthony.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could not parent during that timeframe,\u201d Anthony said. \u201cAnd so I just don\u2019t know what we would have done otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida Policy Institute\u2019s proposed plan would have all Florida workers, regardless of if they want to have children, pay from $32 to $350 a year in paycheck deductions, depending on their income. Employers would pitch in between $26 and $285 per employee annually, depending on the employee\u2019s wage. Self-employed people would have the option to buy in.<\/p>\n

That money would fund a policy that would give families from eight to 12 weeks of paid leave. Both mothers and fathers would be eligible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to encourage families to have children because, obviously, that\u2019s good long-term for our society and our education and our labor,\u201d Tsoukalas said. \u201cBut too often we\u2019re expecting everyone to just kind of do that on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Today in History: May 28, US Army launches monkeys into space<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many Florida workers are forced to make “impossible decisions” after having babies because they don’t have paid family leave, say advocates, who have urged Florida to adopt a paid leave plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nPaid family leave would benefit Florida\u2019s workers, advocates say - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1957\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paid family leave would benefit Florida\u2019s workers, advocates say - 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