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In December 1999, President Clinton announced a comprehensive proposal that would allow states to subsidize maternity leaves for working parents by using the same system that currently pays temporary unemployment benefits. While the program would be strictly voluntary on a state-by-state basis, several states have expressed an interest in adopting the new program. Under the present federal Family and Medical leave Act, employees of companies with fifty or more employees are eligible for twelve weeks of unpaid leave to care for a new baby or a serious health condition of their own or a family member. However, a recent study showed that many working parents are unlikely to take this leave due to the financial hardship an extended, unpaid absence can cause. The same study showed that at least ten percent of those parents who took the unpaid leave ended up on welfare during their time away from work. Because the proposed program uses state unemployment funds to subsidize maternity leaves, states must voluntarily agree to participate. The President’s new proposal would also leave to individual states the terms and duration of subsidized maternity leave. However, the White House backs the proposal due to what it sees as a surplus of unemployment funds due to several years of record high employment rates.
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