Before getting into teaching, Shalonda Ravenell never considered the issue of paid time off or maternity leave. “As a teacher, the job that you do, you don’t get paid what you’re worth, so you would think that there’s sick leave somewhere for you when you have babies,” said Shalonda, a married mother of two and a business education teacher at a public high school in Florida. “But you don’t get six weeks’ worth of pay [for maternity leave] if you don’t have that time saved up,” she told me. Shalonda isn’t alone. With no federal right to paid sick leave, maternity leave, or paternity leave in...