Earlier this spring, Ariel Eckblad returned to work as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s legislative director following twelve weeks of paid parental leave with her new baby. In another congressional office, several things might have gotten in the way of that time: for one, congressional staffers are not guaranteed any paid leave and Eckblad was one of three on a small team who were expectant or new parents within the congresswoman’s first six months in office.

But Ocasio-Cortez decided to offer her staffers twelve weeks of paid parental leave anyway, and Eckblad felt comfortable taking it, because the team was designed to handle multiple absences in an effort to be family-friendly.

In Congress, paid parental leave is left up to individual employers, just as it is in workplaces across the United States. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act ensures that certain employees are granted twelve weeks unpaid leave, but few can afford three months without income. A handful of states have instituted paid parental leave laws, but as The New Yorker put it, “the majority of U.S. employers do not offer paid family leave, for the simple reason that they don’t have to.”

In February, Democrats reintroduced the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, which would allow for twelve weeks of paid family leave funded by a payroll tax shared between employers and employees. More recently, Republicans introduced a paid family leave bill that would require parents to borrow from Social Security benefits and delay retirement. Donald Trump has proposed six weeks of paid leave—merely half of what Ocasio-Cortez is giving her employees—in his 2020 budget, while leaving the details of implementation up to individual states. (Some activists have called the proposal “an empty shell.”)

Often, potential hardships—like a small team facing multiple absences—are used to argue against mandated paid leave. But, as Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter, she instituted this policy despite the potential hardship it might introduce for her small team with new and expectant parents. She explained how they would make it work: paying a living minimum wage to junior staffers means workers aren’t forced to take second jobs. As a result, she continued, “senior staffers are confident enough in them to take parental leave and not feel like everything will fall apart.”

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