Paid leave has long been a Democratic cause, one that candidates rallied around at the debate Wednesday night. Now it’s also one for Republicans, who’ve recently embraced a version of it, with a flurry of new bills and a White House summit next month. The debate revealed minor divisions in the candidates’ approaches; the bigger differences, though, are between the two parties.

What is the main sticking point?

The big divide is over which workers would get paid time off and where the money would come from.

In general, Democrats support starting a new federal fund, financed by a payroll tax increase, that would provide paid leave for new parents and for workers with an illness or injury or with sick family members. (Three-quarters of people who use federal unpaid leave use it for their own health reasons or to care for family members other than newborns.)

Republican plans, and one bipartisan idea, focus more narrowly on new parents, with a different way to pay for it: People could dip into their own future federal benefits, and receive smaller benefits later.

Why have Republicans embraced this issue?

Policymakers are addressing the fact that the United States is the only rich country with no federal paid leave, even though most parents work. The country’s lack of family-friendly policies is a factor in women’s stalled advancement in the work force and the country’s declining fertility rate, research shows.