An analysis quantifies the costs families currently face as a result of lacking U.S. work-family policies as $28.9 billion.

A report from the Center for American Progress focuses on the cost to families of work-family policies such as paid family and medical leave. From the synopsis,

The lack of federal work-family policies in the United States marks the nation as an extreme outlier among other advanced economies. One of the many costs of the lack of work-family policies is lost wages, which occur when individuals are forced to quit working or must reduce their work hours because they cannot access child care or paid leave. Every year, as our new analysis shows, working families in the United States lose out on at least $28.9 billion in lost wages because they lack access to affordable child care and paid family and medical leave.

Read the full report from the Center for American Progress.

Maryland’s General Assembly will likely pass a mandatory sick leave legislation in this coming year’s legislative session. Last year, the sick leave bill passed the House in the final days of the legislature’s calendar, but it did not proceed through the Senate for final passage.

While county government employers provide generous work-family policies to full time employees, the legislation in the General Assembly last year would require extension of the provision of earned sick leave to part time and seasonal employees.

For more information on Maryland’s sick leave legislation, see Conduit Street‘s previous post, House Sends Amended Sick Leave Bill to Senate.