The grades are in. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, Indiana earned a D- this year for its workplace policies, joining 26 other states that have failed to provide paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, protection for pregnant workers, or other supports for working families. The grades can be found in Expecting Better: A State-by-State Analysis of Laws That Help Expecting and New Parents.

Indiana narrowly missed an "F" thanks to in parts to its law protecting nursing mothers' workplace rights, which states that all nursing mothers who work for employers with 25 or more employees must be provided a place other than a toilet stall to express milk as well as cold storage options. In addition to this, state agencies must provide reasonable paid break time unless this would unduly disrupt operations. Finally, Indiana's grade got a small boost because state workers who earn sick time may also use sick time for the illness or injury of a family member.

Still, Indiana has a long way to go to ensure that working families' needs are met:

• -Over 1 million Hoosier workers cannot earn a single paid sick day. Yet for the typical U.S. family, 3.5 days lost to illness are equivalent to a family's monthly grocery budget.
• -Only 37% of Indiana's workers are estimated to be eligible for and able to afford unpaid leave under the Family Medical Leave Act. 
• -Nearly one in four women returns to work within two weeks of giving birth. 

In a state where women make up 48% of the state workforce, 837,000 Hoosiers serve as family caregivers, and nearly 3 in 4 children live in families where all parents work, lawmakers need to recognize that paid leave and job protections are essential.

Please join the Indiana Institute for Working Families in calling on lawmakers to value all families through supportive workplace policies. Look for our paid leave coalition website and sign-on letter later this month, and send us your stories to share with legislators. Let's raise our grade by expecting better.