NORAH O'DONNELL (CO-HOST): A new milestone this morning in the national debate over paid family leave. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed landmark legislation on Monday. Employers will have to provide 12 weeks of paid time off to new parents and others with family challenges. Workers will get a portion of their salary and they'll be guaranteed a similar job when they return. New York Times correspondent and CBS News contributor Jodi Kantor has written extensively about the challenges facing women in the workplace. Jodi, good morning.

JODI KANTOR: Good morning.

O'DONNELL: So, this is being called revolutionary, groundbreaking. What do you think about it?

KANTOR: This -- for the first time we can really see a system coming into place in America where there will be state-mandated family leave coming from employers, especially for people who do not work for Google, who do not work for Facebook, who do not work for a rich company that can provide a really generous leave policy. The way it works is that it's employee funded. You put a tiny amount from your paycheck each week.

GAYLE KING (CO-HOST): What's tiny?

KANTOR: A dollar a week, $1.50 a week into a fund that funds your family leave when you need it. If your father is dying and you need to go spend a few weeks with him. If you're a mother or father and you have a new baby, that's where your paid family leave comes from.

O'DONNELL: Is it mandated for everyone that they put money into that account, men and women?

KANTOR: Men and women, part-time employees are included. Freelancers can opt in. And small businesses are included in this.

CHARLIE ROSE (CO-HOST): You expect other states to follow suit?

KANTOR: Possibly. This is on the table in a bunch of other cities and states. And the opposition is not that high because of the employee funding model. It's not coming out of taxes and it's not coming directly from the employer.

KING: But the Business Council of New York is already speaking out against it, saying the benefit costs and employee replacement costs will prove to be a significant burden on most employers. You say the opposition is small, but there is some opposition.

KANTOR: This has been in place in California for years and we have not seen a huge backlash or outcry there. The concern is for small businesses. If you're an employer and you have five employees and two of them are pregnant women who are about to give birth and then somebody's aging parent gets sick and everybody has to go out on family leave, and you have to spend a lot of money to hire replacements. That's where the concern comes from.

O'DONNELL: What about the argument, though, why does a small business need to provide that when the insurance, the health insurance they provide, provides for eight weeks of paid maternity leave?

KANTOR: So that's disability, but a father is not going to have disability from having a baby, at least we hope not. And again, you know, so much of the population is taking care of aging parents, or if you have a child with a disability, you could need that family leave. And so pregnancy is only a very small part of family leave. Not a very small part, but it's only one part of family leave.

O'DONNELL: I do think one of the important things to point out about the law in New York, though, is it doesn't start until 2018, right, and then it's fazed in. So you only get about 50 percent of your salary and there's a cap of about $868 per week, right?

KANTOR: Absolutely. The people who will benefit the most from this are the low-income workers. A lot of mothers, say, who work at fast food restaurants, their family leave was that they would quit their job. They would have to when their baby was born.

O'DONNELL: Or come back in two weeks.

KANTOR: Exactly.

ROSE: And their minimum wage may be growing as well.

KANTOR: Exactly. So those two things will work in concert.

Related:

New York Just Passed America's Best Paid Family Leave Law

Previously:

On Fox, Julie Roginsky Debunks Myths Surrounding Paid Family Leave

For Father's Day, CBS Highlights The Country's Lagging Paid Family Leave Policies

The Benefits Of Paid Family Leave That Right-Wing Media Ignore