The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill on Thursday that would grant workers in the state up to a dozen weeks of partial paid leave to take care of a sick family member, bond with a new child, or take care of other “personal and family circumstances.”

The measure is now on the desk of Governor Larry Hogan, who has not indicated whether he will sign the bill. (Hogan’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) Advocates are confident they have a veto-proof majority, thanks to the Democratically controlled legislature that passed the bill. Paid leave supporters in the legislature intentionally passed the bill early so that the lawmakers would be able to override such a veto.

If the bill becomes law, Maryland will join D.C. and nine other states that have paid leave programs in place or in the works. While Maryland lawmakers have made previous attempts at establishing a paid leave program in recent years, none of those efforts have made it out of committee.

“This has been a labor of love,” says Myles Hicks, the leader of a coalition of organized labor, religious groups, nonprofits, and other groups under the banner of the Maryland Time to Care Coalition. “This is years in the making.”

Both employers and employees would fund the paid leave program through contributions from their paychecks. (Businesses with fewer than 15 employees are exempted from contributions.) The resulting pool of money would allow workers to take up to 12 weeks for partially paid sick or family leave, with up to 24 weeks for parents who have serious health issues in the year of their child’s birth. The program would cover workers in the public and private sector, as well as both part- and full-time employees. (State employees and private companies with at least 50 employees are already able to take 12 weeks of unpaid family and medical leave in Maryland.)

It remains unclear how much employers and employees will contribute — the bill doesn’t spell it out. Instead, the measure requires the Department of Labor to conduct a report that determines the amount of contributions by December 1. Some Republican lawmakers who opposed the measure were concerned that the legislation didn’t answer that question.

Business advocates have said that the measure is too broad. Mike O’Halloran, the Maryland director of the National Federation of Independent Business, says many small businesses already offer some form of paid leave to their workers and it’s “best left up to every single small business owner and their employee to figure out what works for them.”

But Hicks contends that having a uniform program in the state actually benefits small businesses, because it keeps them competitive with larger employers.

“You’re evening the playing field,” he says, recalling an incident he observed when he worked for a small business. “We had a lady who went on maternity leave and [the business] gave her partial wage replacement and they had to figure out how to do it because there was no system for it.”

If it becomes law, employers and employees will be required to start contributing to the fund in 2023, and workers would be able to start claiming benefits in 2025.