I spent many of my formative years babysat at the knees of my grandparents and aunts and uncles in South Jersey, and I never once thought I'd volunteer to move there. I love my family don't get me wrong, but I hated how they would always call our city "Philly," and complain about the taste of our water, and were generally down on the urban environment.

But, as much as I love Philadelphia, after 28 years it's finally occurred to me that maybe they were right. Except it's not Philadelphia I find fault with, but Pennsylvania.

New Jersey is a solidly blue state, and they are consistently on the cutting edge when it comes to progressive public policy. From civil unions for LGBT people to liberalized absentee voting laws to a very progressive income tax to abolishing the death penalty, you've got your pick of concrete progressive legislative accomplishments to chose from in NJ.

And yesterday's really topped the cake: New Jersey became one of only three states in the nation to offer paid family leave to its workers.

From the Inky:

New Jersey's version would offer workers up to six weeks' leave to care for sick family members and newborn or adopted children. During the last legislative session, another version of the bill, which would have offered up to 10 weeks of paid leave, failed to clear the legislature.

The current bill would offer workers leave at two-thirds of their salary, up to $504 per week, for six weeks. Workers would pay for the program through payroll deductions, which would cost an estimated $33 per year. Workers would be limited to one leave per 12-month period.

Federal law mandates most employers give workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid family leave, although companies with fewer than 50 employees are exempt.

Paid family leave is an essential plank in a 21st century New Deal for workers. Why?

Because when the first New Deal got started in 1933, many more households contained a full-time stay-at-home member. So when someone else got sick or ill, there was someone available to help.

This is not the case today as any of us who has cared for a sick family member can tell you. In an era where hospital stays are shorter, prescriptions are handed out like candy, and the procession of home care workers into the home of a sick family member can make your head spin, it's necessary to have someone else around full-time.

But without paid leave, when one of the worst aspects of our conversion into a service economy is that vast numbers of workers no longer have sick or vacation days, a lot of people care for their family members in lieu of earning wages, and in some cases, give up their job to do so. Paid family leave addresses this problem.

There are also obviously a lot more women in the workplace today than in 1933, which makes paid family leave an essential worker benefit for any female employee who wants to give birth. Not to mention the fact that starting a family via birth or adoption interferes with work in almost every scenario you can imagine (one parent or two, gay or straight) since we all work a lot more more hours than did our forebearers.

Paid family leave allows families to stay fiscally secure during rough times which, in the long run, benefits our shared economy. It's a shame that states are having to slowly fix this the lack of paid leave in the "landmark" FMLA bill Clinton got passed back in the 90's, but it's heartening that it is happening, and happening right across the river.

In short, I heart NJ's paid family leave.

We need this here too. Dollar for dollar, New Jersey is really setting itself up as a competitor with our region for jobs and residents in a very significant way. Decent home prices, good schools, paid family leave (and for me civil union laws) are all just a PATCO ride away in New Jersey.

And the chances of us getting all (if any) of the progressive reforms they've put in place soon are slim. So unless we decide to secede soon, it might be time to call a real estate agent...