What others say: Time with family should be about love, not privilege

  • Sunday, September 13, 2015 10:05pm
  • Opinion

As the “Fight for $15” has preoccupied blue-collar workers, the high end of the workforce has discovered a new privilege: paid family leave.

Four months at Facebook for new mothers and fathers. Three months at Microsoft, plus an optional part-time re-entry. At Netflix, a full year of “unlimited” paid parental leave.

Finally, some balance, right? Not exactly. Though the trend toward more generous corporate leave policies is great news, it’s irrelevant for most workers. The big, mostly tech companies expanding paid family leave are competing for skilled engineers or trying to recruit women. Good for them, and good for their families. But down the ladder, work-life balance remains a distant dream.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

Unlike most of the developed world, the U.S. doesn’t have a paid maternity leave mandate; paternity leave is still a luxury for most American fathers. There’s little incentive for employers to go beyond the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, which requires only that companies with 50 or more employees hold a worker’s job for 12 weeks while he or she cares for an ailing spouse or child or a new baby, without pay.

Even in California, where the family leave laws are supposedly a national model, the only guarantees are for six weeks of unpaid leave plus six weeks with partial pay, up to about $1,100 a week at the six-figure end of the pay scale. That is, if the employer isn’t among the 41 percent of California businesses that are exempt because they fall below that 50-employee threshold.

Of course, many of those exempt businesses accommodate valued employees, and adjust when a worker has family issues. But they don’t have to, and though every worker in the state pays, via payroll tax, for the paid family leave benefit the state offers, it’s also not uncommon among small businesses for workers to be forced out for taking a family leave.

Senate Bill 406 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, would expand California’s version of the federal leave law, so that the unpaid leave mandate would include businesses with 25 to 50 employees. It also would allow unpaid leave for those caring for sick grandparents, grandchildren and siblings.

Assembly Bill 908, by Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, would separately lengthen the state’s paid family leave benefit to eight weeks and improve wage replacement, which is underwritten entirely by workers through state disability insurance.

The California Chamber of Commerce is neutral on AB 908, but claims small businesses will be overwhelmed if unpaid leaves are incrementally expanded. But as the chamber notes, many businesses already voluntarily accommodate the occasional family issue. At least six other states have expanded eligibility with little problem. If history is any gauge, 9 out of 10 businesses will be fine with it.

What is scary for small businesses is the threat of getting sued if they don’t get the new rules right. That’s a real and potentially costly concern, and perhaps the legal remedies in SB 406 could be gradually phased in.

But generally, these proposed tweaks are sensible and modest, and address a social need that shouldn’t be left to employers. Time with family should be about love, not privilege.

—The Fresno Bee, Sept. 6

More in Opinion

Alaska Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner Deena Bishop and Gov. Mike Dunleavy discuss his veto of an education bill during a press conference March 15, 2024, at the Alaska State Capitol. (Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: Strong policy, proven results

Why policy and funding go hand in hand.

Former Gov. Frank Murkowski speaks on a range of subjects during an interview with the Juneau Empire in May 2019. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File)
Opinion: The Jones Act — crass protectionism, but for whom?

Alaska is dependent on the few U.S.-built ships carrying supplies from Washington state to Alaska.

Cook Inlet can be seen at low tide from North Kenai Beach on June 15, 2022, in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)
Opinion: Solving the Cook Inlet gas crisis

While importing LNG is necessary in the short term, the Kenai Peninsula is in dire need of a stable long-term solution.

Sockeye salmon caught in a set gillnet are dragged up onto the beach at a test site for selective harvest setnet gear in Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Capitol Corner: Creating opportunities with better fishery management

Sen. Jesse Bjorkman reports back from Juneau.

The ranked choice outcome for Alaska’s U.S. Senate race is shown during an Alaska Public Media broadcast on Nov. 24, 2022. (Alaska Division of Elections)
Opinion: Alaska should keep ranked choice voting, but let’s make it easier

RCV has given Alaskans a better way to express their preferences.

The Alaska State Capitol on March 1. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Opinion: Keep Alaska open for business

Our job as lawmakers is to ensure that laws passed at the ballot box work effectively on the ground.

Brooke Walters. (Courtesy photo)
Opinion: A student’s letter to the governor

Our education funding is falling short by exuberant amounts.

Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna, speaks in support of debating an omnibus education bill in the Alaska House Chambers on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024. in Juneau, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Capitol Corner: Compromise, not games

Rep. Justin Ruffridge reports back from Juneau.

Image provided by the Office of Mayor Peter Micciche.
Opinion: Taxes, adequate education funding and putting something back into your pocket

Kenai Peninsula Borough taxpayers simply can’t make a dent in the education funding deficit by themselves, nor should they be asked to do so.

Most Read