Few employers in Kentucky offer paid family leave.

That's time off for parents to spend with their newborns or for people to care for their sick relatives.

A bill to expand paid family leave options in Kentucky is gaining traction early in the legislative session.

Kentucky Additions Jun Leffler has more.

Kentucky employers don't have to offer paid family leave.

But Representative Samara Hebron says this benefit is barely an option in the state.

The biggest questions were What can we come up with that strengthens Kentucky families?

Does it hurt Kentucky small businesses and can pass the Kentucky General Assembly?

Her bill would give Kentucky employers the option to expand their insurance benefits to include paid family leave, something lawmakers have to sign off on.

This is a market driven policy proposal that includes no mandate specific, no mandates on employers, workers or families.

Paid family leave insurance would provide a temporary wage replacement for workers who need to take leave to provide care for a sick family member born of the child after the child's birth.

Adoption or placement for foster care.

Care for a family member in the military or first responders who were injured in the line of duty or for other reasons outlined in the employer's plan.

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce supports this bill, saying Kentucky has to keep up with other states to attract and retain workers.

Employers in Tennessee will soon be allowed to authorize this or offer this type of benefits.

Employers in Virginia are already able to do so.

We know Indiana is taking a close look at this.

States like Texas, Florida, Arkansas, those states have already passed legislation to authorize this.

So any time we see at all that employers in other states can use, we always want to make sure that that becomes available to Kentucky employers as well.

But Representative Tom Smith worries expanding paid family leave could hurt small businesses when competing for workers.

We don't want to introduce things and cause things to pull people away from our area.

So I'm just being mindful of that and the incentives do that.

And I don't blame people for trying to take the best, you know, and find the best abilities for the family.

Still, Smith and all members of the House Banking and Insurance Committee voted to advance the bill.

Democrats say the bill could go further.

I understand that not putting a mandate on it is something that we need to do at this moment.

I just really hope that we have a lot of people that take advantage of this.

In particular, I hope state government takes advantage of this.

I think that we as state government should be setting the example of how we want small businesses, large corporations, anybody to be trading their employees.

House Bill 179 needs further readings on the House floor.

If it were to become law, it would go into effect immediately.

For Kentucky, edition of June Leffler.

Thank you, June.

Just one in five workers in Kentucky can get paid family leave through their job, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.

A federal law says workers who've been on the job for at least a year are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid family leave.