MrsJakob
Naterade is Thirstade!
Member since 6/10 3002 total posts
Name:
Danielle
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U.S. 'decades behind' other countries in parental leave
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NEW YORK— Americans often take pride in
ways their nation differs from others. But one
distinction — lack of a nationwide policy of
paid maternity leave — is cited in a new report
as an embarrassment that could be redressed
at low cost and without harm to employers.
"Despite its enthusiasm about 'family values,'
the U.S. is decades behind other countries in
ensuring the well-being of working families,"
said Janet Walsh, deputy director of the
women's rights division of Human Rights
Watch.
"Being an outlier is nothing to be proud of in a
case like this," she added.
Human Rights Watch, based in New York,
focuses most of its investigations on abuses
abroad.
But on Wednesday, with release of a report by
Walsh on work/family policies in the U.S., it
takes the relatively unusual step of critiquing a
phenomenon affecting tens of millions of
Americans.
The report, "Failing its Families," says at least
178 countries have national laws guaranteeing
paid leave for new mothers, while the handful
of exceptions include the U.S., Swaziland and
Papua New Guinea.
More than 50 nations, including most Western
countries, also guarantee paid leave for new
fathers.
Past efforts in Congress to enact a paid family
leave law have floundered, drawing opposition
from business lobbyists who say it would be a
burden on employers.
Instead, there is the 1993 Family and Medical
Leave Act, which enables workers with new
children or seriously ill family members to
take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
By excluding companies with fewer than 50
employees, it covers only about half the work
force, and many who are covered cannot
afford to take unpaid leave.
Millions 'left out'
"Leaving paid leave to the whim of employers
means millions of workers are left out,
especially low-income workers who may need
it most," said Walsh, citing federal estimates
that only 10 percent of private-sector workers
have paid family leave benefits.
With prospects for federal legislation
considered dim for now, advocates of family-
friendly workplace policies hope for progress
at the state level and are looking closely at
California and New Jersey, the only states that
have paid-leave programs.
Both states have severe budget problems
overall, but the leave programs — financed
entirely through small payroll tax
contributions by workers — are flourishing.
Both offer six weeks of paid leave for workers
taking time off to bond with a new child or to
care for a seriously ill child, spouse or parent.
Human Rights Watch, which interviewed
dozens of parents for its report, said lack of
paid leave has numerous harmful
consequences — fueling postpartum
depression, causing mothers to give up
breast-feeding early, forcing some families
into debt or onto welfare.
Cathy Frazier of Mendota Heights, Minn., and
her husband, Joe, believe that her severe bout
of postpartum depression could have been
avoided or at least eased if he had been able to
take paid leave after the birth of their son six
years ago.
The boy was born two months early, spent five
weeks in the hospital, and remained in frail
health after he went home. The couple said Cathy had to provide most of
his care single-handedly while Joe was
working long hours at a local public-access
TV station.
"If Joe had been around, it would have been
better," Cathy Frazier said in a telephone
interview. "I might have gotten sick, but not
like I was."
The depression was so severe that she was
hospitalized for a week, and went into debt
paying for therapy with a credit card because
her insurance didn't cover it.
Six years later, she said she still struggles with
depression, taking medication and unsure
about her prospects for accepting any job that
would involve working outside her home.
Leave 'made a big difference'
Conversely, Jennifer Shankman of Malibu,
Calif., was grateful to benefit from her state's
paid leave program, which helped her take off
a total of five months — three paid, two unpaid
— after her son was born in September.
"It helped me to not feel as stressed," said
Shankman, who's now back at work as a
youth camp director. "It made a big difference
mentally."
The Human Rights Watch report urges other
states to emulate New Jersey and California by
adopting paid leave programs.
Any takers might get federal help — the
Obama administration, in its recent budget
proposal, proposed allocating $23 million to
help states with startup costs for such
initiatives.
One possible beneficiary could be Washington
state. A paid leave measure was passed by
lawmakers there in 2007, but never
implemented due to lack of funding.
New Jersey's program started in July 2009 and
its balance as of Dec. 31 was $39 million —
robust enough so the state recently reduced
workers' contribution by half. The maximum
annual payment is now less than $18 instead
of more than $35.
Through December, New Jersey had approved
44,972 claims — 91 percent of those filed —
and paid out $105 million in benefits at an
average of $471 a week.
California's program began in 2004 and is run
by the State Disability Insurance plan, which
collects 1.1 percent of pay from 13 million
eligible workers.
In 2009-10, the state paid out $469 million for
180,675 claims, with an average weekly
benefit of $488.
In New Jersey, men make up about 12 percent
of the parents seeking paid leave to bond with
a new child. In California, men's share of the
leave has risen from 17 percent to 26 percent
since 2004.
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In each state, some business leaders remain
unenthusiastic, though there is no clamor to
repeal the programs.
Modest impact on business
Michael Egenton, senior vice president of New
Jersey Chamber of Commerce, said the impact
had been relatively modest thus far.
He attributed this to the recession and the
desire of most workers to take paid leave only
after conferring with their bosses to ensure
the absence wouldn't be disruptive.
"With the tough economy, people are feeling,
'I'm glad I have a job,'" he said. "We'll be
interested in seeing where the program goes
when the economy improves."
In California, Chamber of Commerce policy
advocate Jennifer Barrera said the leave
program — combined with other policies —
"creates a significant administrative burden on
employers, increases costs, and minimizes the
ability of companies to expand hiring and
create new jobs."
However, Eileen Applebaum of the Center for
Economic and Policy Research, a liberal
Washington think tank, said she and a
colleague reached a different conclusion in a
recent survey of 235 California businesses.
She said the vast majority of employers found
the leave program had a positive or neutral
effect on productivity, profitability, turnover
and worker morale.
Applebaum contended that business
associations, rather than individual employers,
were the main obstacle to paid-leave
proposals in Congress and state legislatures.
"Employer associations in other countries help
their companies be successful," she said. "In
this country, employer associations largely
exist to resist anything that might be good for
workers."
In the European Union, paid parental leave
varies from 14 weeks in Malta to 16 months in
Sweden, which reserves at least two months of
its leave exclusively for fathers. Most EU
countries have maintained the provisions of
their programs despite the recession.
Ellen Bravo of the Family Values at Work
Consortium, a 15-state network working for
family-friendly policies, said the bid to expand
paid leave in the U.S. was hampered by the
clout of corporate lobbyists and the relatively
weak status of the labor movement.
"Family values often end at the workplace
door," she said. "What we're fighting for isn't
just modest — it's meager compared to what
other countries have."
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