Most Americans support paid family and medical leave and think employers, rather than the government, should cover the costs, but they are divided over whether companies should be legally required to provide it, according to a report released today.
As Reuters reports, Americans, across ages and political parties, questioned by the Pew Research Center favored paid leave for new parents, sick workers and employees caring for a family member with an illness.
But a large majority of Republicans said employers should be able to decide whether to pay for the benefits, while Democrats want it to be mandated.
Americans also did not rank expanding paid leave as a top priority for President Donald Trump and Congress this year, placing it below terrorism, jobs and immigration.
“It is not as simple as ‘more people support family, medical leave,'” says Juliana Horowitz, associate director of research at Pew and a co-author of the report.
“There are a lot of complexities when it comes to what Americans say should be done in terms of who should provide it and how it should be delivered,” she adds.
When people were asked about specific proposals, there was more support for providing tax incentives for companies to make it easier to provide the benefit than for the allocation of government funds for it, Horowitz says.
