All Twelve State Parental Leave Programs Are Awful – Matt Bruenig/People’s Policy Project
“In the average state, 36 percent of women in this age range did not meet the work history requirements of their state’s paid parental leave program. In the most extreme case of Rhode Island, a slight majority of women fail the state’s work history requirement.
“Younger women have a weaker attachment and history in the workforce than older women and so parental leave eligibility is especially uncommon for women between the ages of 18 and 25. Some women are rendered ineligible because they did not work at all in the prior year, either because they were in school, disabled, unemployed, or caregiving. But many other ineligible women did work, just not enough to meet their state’s work history requirements. In the latter case, these women actually contribute part of their paycheck into their state’s parental leave program, but then are denied benefits when they have children.
“In both cases, the women screened out of eligibility tend to have less education and receive lower pay. Put differently, it’s the lower class that is disproportionately pushed out of these programs.”
Dear legislators:
From the perspective of low-wage workers, providing them with five paid sick days should be a priority. Much more expensive proposals to mandate many weeks of paid family leave are harder to enact, and end up excluding many low-wage parents. California’s family leave program is one example:
This Health Affairs article provides background on how “progressive” think tanks have prioritized paid family leave, which is politically targeted to help higher-income families that already have paid sick days, while failing to advance paid sick days:
Trying to develop a better, more equitable family leave program than California and other states have — which will take years and may never happen due to the cost — should not slow down efforts to make sure all workers can get some time off to go to the doctor without losing pay. Most employers already offer paid sick days, which higher-paid employees take for granted. Mandating employers that do not will result in a level playing field for those doing the right thing for their employees and their families.