New York just passed one of the most comprehensive paid family leave policies in the United States.

Employers in the state will be required to offer both women and men up to 12 weeks of paid time off for the birth, adoption or fostering of a child. The mandate also covers time off to care for a seriously ill family member. It was tucked into a budget deal approved on Thursday.

This is the nation's first 12-week paid family leave policy. Though four other states have mandates in place, none of them come close to the terms New York just passed. California and New Jersey guarantee six weeks; Rhode Island offers four weeks.

When it starts, how it works

The benefits will be phased in over a three-year period. Starting in 2018, employees — both full- and part-time — who have been at their jobs for six months can collect up to 50% of their pay (this is capped at 50% of the statewide average weekly wage, which was $1,266.44 in 2014). They can take up to eight weeks. In 2019 and 2020, that period increases to 10 weeks.

When the program is fully implemented in 2021, workers can take 67% of their weekly salary for 12 weeks

When the program is fully implemented in 2021, workers can take 67% of their weekly salary (up to 67% of the statewide average weekly wage). They will be able to take the full 12 weeks by this time.

New York state will fund the paid family leave through what it calls "nominal" weekly paycheck deductions — it comes out to around $1 per week — meaning it will cost employers nothing. This is a crucial part of the program because it helps to discourage gender bias during hiring.

For New Yorkers who pull in high salaries, the caps will mean taking a pay cut during time off. But the program is a lifeline for single-parent households and for those living below the poverty line (15.9% of the state in 2014).

In case you didn't know, there is no federal paid family leave policy on the books in the U.S. We have the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that requires employers to offer some kind of time off.

However, it does not require the employer to pay a single cent for that leave. It's also bogged down with fine print, such as stipulations on company size and how much time the employee clocked the year before. In 2012, the average length of FMLA leave for parents with a new child was 58 days for women and 22 days for men.

Image: Source: department of labor survey, 2012

In less than two years, New York employees will have more to lean on than that — something Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been passionate about since he went through a spate of personal losses last year when his father died and his partner was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"Life is such a precious gift and I have kicked myself every day that I didn’t spend more time with my father at that end period," Cuomo said in his State of the State Address.

So, for Cuomo, Thursday was both a political and personal victory.

"In a time defined by vitriolic hyper partisanship and when people have lost faith in their government’s fundamental ability to address the critical challenges of our time – in particular, the growing income inequality in our country, New York State has once again come together to get things done," he wrote in a statement after the budget was finalized.

Signing the $15 minimum wage and paid family leave bill into law. pic.twitter.com/2IKCrJ8Mnu — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 4, 2016

Compared to other countries, the U.S. is still failing

However, as New York magazine's Rebecca Traister pointed out, this doesn't even come close to what other nations offer to all workers countrywide.

The UK guarantees 40 weeks. Canada offers 17 weeks. Ireland provides 26 weeks. Mexico offers 12 weeks. Japan guarantees 14 weeks. Even Bangladesh, a country criticized for poor worker treatment, offers 16 weeks' leave.

In fact, the U.S. is still the only highly developed country in the world that doesn't offer federal paid maternity leave.

Though Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are big supporters of a federal paid family leave policy, many Republicans see it as controversial because they believe it will destroy businesses.

Perhaps New York is a start to something even bigger.

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