The Labor Department will be granting $1.1 million to six states and municipalities to research the costs of setting up programs that provide at least partial income when employees take time off for family care. The funds will be given to Denver; Franklin, Ohio; Madison, Wis.; and Hawaii, Indiana and Pennsylvania, so that they may follow the lead of California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, all of which offer public programs to assist workers whose employers don't provide family care leave. The three states currently offer at least four weeks of paid family leave, paying at least 55 percent of employees' full income, through employee-funded temporary disability insurance programs. The grants are part of the Paid Leave Analysis Grant Program, which has given more than $3 million to 17 states and municipalities in order to fund research on how to create local paid leave programs.
See "The Labor Department is pushing states to create their own paid family leave programs", Danielle Paquette, The Washington Post, August 17, 2016