Featured in The Western Journal — August 2026
In this Western Journal op-ed, CEA President Margaret Iuculano makes the case that paid family leave is best handled at the state level rather than through a sweeping federal mandate. Family leave is often only available to employees of large companies, leaving workers at smaller businesses without meaningful options — but the answer is not a one-size-fits-all federal program.
The piece argues that states have proven to be effective laboratories for leave policy: they can tailor programs to local economies, protect small and faith-based employers from unworkable mandates, and experiment with approaches that actually work before spreading them nationally.
A federal paid family leave mandate raises serious concerns for Christian employers, who need the flexibility to structure benefits in ways consistent with their values and the realities of running a mission-driven business. Removing that flexibility in favor of a top-down federal requirement would burden small employers, limit innovation, and override state-level progress already underway.
The op-ed calls for Congress to resist pressure for a federal mandate and instead allow states to continue leading on this issue.
Read the Full Op-Ed at The Western Journal
This CEA Newsroom post summarizes an external article. Read the full piece at the link above.