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Oklahoma Receives Failing Grade for Family Leave Policies

National Partnership for Women and Families

The grades are in from a study of how states are going above and beyond the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, and Oklahoma is one of 12 getting an F.

The National Partnership for Women and Families looked at how states have gone further than the 23-year-old federal law, which requires employers grant up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in certain circumstances.

Oklahoma has no laws past that.

"California has a paid family and medical leave law, a paid sick days law, a pregnancy accommodations law, and rights for nursing mothers," said Sarah Fleisch Fink with the national partnership.

California earned the study’s only A.

Fink said some employers have their own policies, but laws are needed to protect low-income families.

"The jobs that are currently being added to our economy are disproportionately low-wage jobs, so this is not a problem that is simply going to solve itself by employers doing this voluntarily, one by one," Fink said. "It really requires state-level public policy changes and federal public policy solutions."

Over 11 years of studies, several states have enacted paid family leave, paid sick day and workplace accommodation laws — just not Oklahoma.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.