A provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act offers a tax credit to employers that offer paid family and medical leave for lower-wage workers, Kaiser Health News notes.

Specifically, the tax credit is available to companies that grant a minimum of two weeks of paid family or medical leave annually to full- or part-time employees. The workers must earn less than $72,000 a year, and the leave pay must cover at least 50% of their wages. An employee must have worked for the company for at least a year in order for the employer to qualify for a tax credit related to his or her leave pay.

Employers that contribute at the half-wage level will receive a tax credit equal to 12.5% of the amount paid to the employee. The credit will increase on a sliding scale up to a maximum credit of 25% of the amount the employer paid for up to 12 weeks of leave.

The program, proposed by Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), was designed as a test and will last only until 2019. California, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island have similar laws, Kaiser noted, and programs in Washington, D.C., and Washington state are set to start in 2020.