Work-life Balance Talking Points
Healthy Families Act | Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave
The Healthy Families Act will guarantee workers paid sick leave in order to:
- Recover from serious illness or injury,
- Provide care for a sick or disabled child, spouse, or parent,
- Attend medical appointments, and,
- Seek assistance and recover from incidents of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
The Healthy Families Act protects both employees and employers. It will:
- Guarantee full-time workers seven job-protected paid sick days per year, and a prorated number of hours or days for part-time workers (those who work less than 30 hours per week),
- Only apply to employers with fifteen or more workers,
- Give employers the option of requiring certification of illness or injury by an appropriate medical or legal professional for any absence longer than three days, and
- Have no effect on employers who already offer the benefits described in this legislation.
The American family has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Employee benefits should reflect the way we live now – not a half-century ago.
- Back in the 1960s, the overwhelming majority – 70% -- of American families with children had a mother who stayed home to provide round-the-clock childcare. Today, that statistic is reversed: two-thirds of families with children have either two employed parents, or a single employed parent, most of whom now work full-time.
- Not only are many more parents working, but working parents today work more hours than their counterparts of a half century ago. In addition, a growing number of workers are responsible for the care of elderly or disabled family members. For victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, many courts and agencies that provide assistance only conduct business during regular office hours.
- Unfortunately, many private sector employers are still using benefits policies that were developed for the family of yesterday, not today. In the past, employed fathers generally did not need paid leave to take care of personal and family matters: for that they depended on “non-working” mothers. Today, many employees are forced to choose between taking unpaid leave and possible job loss, or the health and safety of themselves and their families.
Archaic leave policies hurt parents and children alike. The Healthy Families Act is a much-needed change.
- The lack of paid sick leave particularly hurts working mothers, who still bear a disproportionate responsibility for care of the family. Half of all working mothers report that they have had to miss work to care for an ailing child. Of those mothers, half reported that they forfeited their salaries to do so.
- The lack of paid sick leave also hurts men. While single working mothers outnumber single working fathers, 30% of working fathers report having had to take unpaid leave to care for themselves or a family member. Due to lingering stereotypes about what are and are not proper gender roles, some men report having been denied leave to care for a family member: they are “supposed to” put their jobs first. Conversely, working mothers are sometimes viewed as inherently less committed to their jobs because they are “supposed to” put their families first.
The lack of paid sick leave leads to “presenteeism,” and that is bad for business.
- Presenteeism is the practice of employees coming to work while ill, thereby infecting other employees. Ultimately, it costs businesses less to allow a sick person to stay home with pay than it does if the sick worker causes the illness of the others in the workplace. The American Productivity Audit and studies in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the Employee Benefit News, and the Harvard Business Review show that presenteeism is a large drain on productivity – larger than that of either absenteeism or short-term disability.
America is one of the very few countries in the world that do not guarantee paid maternity or sick leave. American families deserve the best – not the worst – workplace policies.
- 168 countries – but not the United States – have laws granting women paid maternity leave. The only other countries that do not guarantee this are Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland.
- 137 countries – but not the United States – have laws that guarantee workers paid sick leave.
- 39 countries – but not the United States – guarantee paid leave to care for a sick child.
Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act
As the nation’s largest employer, the Federal Government should be a leader in family-friendly workplace policy. But right now, it lags far behind the private sector and the standards set for workers in many other countries around the world.
- A 2007 study by the Congressional Joint Economic Committee showed that Fortune 100 companies typically offer six to eight weeks of paid parental leave to new mothers and two weeks to new fathers.
- The U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not offer universal paid parental leave to its citizens. The European Union guides its 27 member states to offer a minimum of fourteen weeks of paid maternity leave, and most countries exceed that amount.
Paid parental leave ensures that parents can take time off to care for a new child without suffering devastating financial consequences. There could not be a worse time to ask parents to choose between their job and their new child than during an economic downturn.
- The current practice of saving unused vacation time and sick days may work for the lucky family who never gets sick, but it is unrealistic for most families.
- A general lack of infant care requires that working parents take leave to care for their newborn. Government-sponsored day care facilities, for example, typically do not care for infants younger than 10 to 12 weeks old.
- For the many workers who are either at low pay grades, haven't built up their vacation time, or have had to use up their sick days before delivery, having a child means that they will either lose several weeks of pay that is crucial to their family's survival, or return to work immediately after the child is born.
The American family has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Federal employee benefits should reflect the way we live now – not a half-century ago.
- Back in the 1960s, the overwhelming majority – 70% -- of American families with children had a mother who stayed home to provide round-the-clock childcare. Today, that statistic is reversed: two-thirds of families with children have either two employed parents, or a single employed parent, most of whom now work full-time.
- Not only are many more parents working, but working parents today work longer hours than their counterparts of a half century ago.
- In the past, employed fathers generally did not need paid leave to take care of a newborn: for that they depended on “non-working” mothers. Times have changed; so should our benefits policies.
Offering paid parental leave will help the federal government recruit and retain dedicated and talented workers.
- At a time when the federal government is struggling to recruit and retain qualified employees, the government should be offering benefits that can compete with the private sector.
- The federal workforce is aging and family-friendly benefits could help attract younger workers. The average age of federal workers increased from 43.6 years to 46.7 years from 1994-2004.
The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act is budget neutral.
- The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has determined that this legislation is “pay-go” neutral, meaning it would not affect direct spending or receipts. Instead, it would draw on the $190 million that federal agencies save when employees take unpaid leave. The Joint Economic Committee estimates that this is equal to less than one-tenth of 1% of the federal payroll.
Paid parental leave will save the federal government money.
- The agencies will retain more employees, which will save turnover costs, aid in recruitment, and improve productivity and employee morale. The Congressional Joint Economic Committee estimates that it costs nearly three times as much to replace an employee than to her or him with four weeks of paid parental leave.
