Paid Maternity Leave

I would like to see the United States DEPARTMENT OF LABOR make changes to the Family Medical Leave Act. Over all I believe the FMLA is a good standard but there is one piece of it that I would like to see changed. According to the Department Of Labors website, FMLA is designed to help employees balance their work and family responsibilities by allowing them to take reasonable unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons. It also seeks to accommodate the legitimate interests of employers and promote equal employment opportunity for men and women. So here is my issue with the FMLA, if it is truly designed to help benefit the employee then I think it should require employers to cover the salary of its employee while they are on leave. Specifically I believe that maternity pay should be covered by the employer. The act is designed to help a family balance work and life, but how does it help if that person is not receiving pay while on leave. I understand that the employee can use sick time or other means of PTO but once that is gone then there is nothing to help support an income. This also leaves the parent with no time to use for an emergency after returning to work. I currently work with a young lady that is facing this in the near future, her and her spouse both work, but they are on a limited income. She recently received the exciting news that she is going to have a baby. Of course she is overly excited but as time goes by she continues to build stress over how they will be able to pay bills while she is off with the baby. She will have the option to take up to 12 weeks off but has to use all of her time. She only has enough PTO and sick hours to cover 6 weeks, leaving her with nothing for a complete year. As anyone knows the first years of a child’s life can result in numerous doctors’ visits and other circumstances that will require time off, but she will not have the time to take. As I’m sure you can see how this would add stress to anyone. My belief is that the Government should pass a law requiring all employers that fall under the FMLA to pay maternity benefits for a minimum of six weeks and up to 12 weeks depending on the health of the child or parent.  Most employers do yearly budgets that account for the salary if the employee was there, so it shouldn’t be a burden to continue to pay when they are on leave. The government could also provide tax breaks or credits to the employer for offering coverage. President Trump addressed his plan for coverage's like this while on the campaign trail and now that he is in the white house I hope that he will see it through.