<span>SALT LAKE CITY – Utah gets an “F” in </span><a href=”http://www.nationalpartnership.org/” target=”parent”>a new report</a><span> analyzing how each state supports – or doesn’t support – new parents and families, with policies that encourage paid time off and job protection when people have to take a leave for parenting or care-giving.</span>
<span>The study is from the National Partnership for Women and Families, and co-author Vicki Shabo, the group’s vice president, described why Utah scores so low.</span>
<span>”Utah specifically gets an ‘F’ because it hasn’t done a single thing beyond what federal law requires in terms of family and medical leave, pregnancy disability or accommodations, or rights for new nursing mothers in the workplace,” she said.</span>
<span>Shabo said Utah is among 31 states which scored “D” and “F” grades in the annual report released to coincide with a White House Summit on Working Families held this week. Topics at the conference included paid sick leave, family leave and equal-pay protections for women.</span>
<span>The state with the highest grade in the report is California, which received an “A-minus.” In the nation overall, Shabo said, states and employers are adopting more flexible workplace policies that support families – but it’s slow.</span>
<span>”There has been some improvement, but not enough,” she said. “So, for example, when we first did this report in 2005, there were 19 states that had a grade of ‘F,’ and now we’re at 17 states.”</span>
<span>Shabo said the United States is one of only three developed nations in the world that do not guarantee paid maternity leave to new mothers.</span>
<span>The full report is online at </span><a href=”http://www.nationalpartnership.org/” target=”parent”>NationalPartnership.org</a><span>.</span>