President Obama is calling upon Congress to make paid sick leave mandatory in the United States. According to USA Today, he is also pushing six weeks of paid leave to federal employees after the birth or adoption of a child.

Obama is already planning to grant paid leave to employees of the executive branch through a presidential memorandum, which is a tool similar to an executive order used to direct federal agencies to implement a White House policy. He is also planning to call on Congress to do the same for its employees.

The push for wider access to paid leave came after a report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. It stated, "The United States is currently the only developed country that does not offer government-sponsored paid maternity leave... Many of these countries also provide paid paternity leave, elder care benefits, and generous paid sick leave."

In fact, NPR reports that 43 million workers in America do not have paid sick leave. Last year, reporter Jennifer Ludden stated, "U.S. labor laws date to the 1930s, a time when most families had a stay-at-home mother."

She continued, "The only federally mandated leave covers just half of the workforce, and many people tell pollsters they can't afford to use it because it's unpaid."

Some studies show that paid leave is actually beneficial to the workforce as a whole. A White House report stated, "Evidence shows that mothers, who do typically take some time off in order to give birth, are more likely to return to their jobs and to stay in the workforce if they are able to take paid maternity leave."

Betsy Stevenson, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, also said, "Study after study finds that these policies are good for children, workers and employers. We need to follow the lead of other industrialized countries and make sure all workers have these protections."

What do you think of Obama's proposition?