2.4 - Paid Leave or Bust

Selena, Alfreda, and Christine’s experiences give texture to the need for national paid family leave. Although the current law helps many, the twelve weeks of unpaid leave is not available toall employees and ignores the very real financial strains most families endure when they are having children. For those with better financial means, the current law allows some comfort that their job will be there after they take some time off to have children. Many families also need the option of taking far more time off than the twelve weeks guaranteed under current law. The current act is a start, not an ending.

Some states are slowly moving forward to increase the help they give new families. A report, Expecting Better: A State-By-State Analysis of Parental Leave Programs, uses ten legislative indicators to rate the types of assistance states give:²³

• Family Leave Benefits
• Medical/Maternity Leave Benefits
• Flexible Sick Days
• At-Home Infant Care Benefits
• Expanded Job-Protected Family Leave
• Expanded Job-Protected Medical/Maternity Leave
• Extended Length of Job-Protected Family and Medical Leave
• State Family Medical Leave Laws
• Paid Family and Medical Leave Benefits for State Employees
• Extended Length of Job-Protected Family and Medical Leave for State Employees

Most of the state columns are woefully blank in the report. In fact, a full nineteen states don’t have any of the above legislation.

Bright spots are showing up across the nation, however, with several states making progress. “There are a lot of different states that are chipping away at the issue—some states have laws where you can use your sick time to take care of your child or family member; some states have lowered the eligibility for using the FMLA to twenty-five employees; and some states are trying to improve on FMLA in other ways,” points out Netsy Firestein, Director of the Labor Project for Working Families. Given those successes, what’s ultimately needed is still a national paid family leave law.

Some companies and organizations are individually trying to find ways to support new parents in the workplace. Selena’s nonprofit workplace is one such place. After Selena’s time home with her premature son was up, she went straight back to work—and she took her newborn son with her.

In an office of fifteen people positioned in cubicles throughout two large rooms that were joined by an enclosed conference room in the center, Selena had a space in the back corner complete with a window and two desks. The utilitarian grey blue décor—desk, cubical walls, carpet—was quickly transformed when a fuzzy cream colored blanket for tummy time was laid over the staid carpeting, an electronic bouncy chair was moved in next to Selena’s desk, and a cozy reclining infant car seat was placed next to the hallway. Her second desk became a changing table. A happy, gurgling baby completed the transformation.

Selena had been in her job for three years when she had Connor. She needed to work in order to bring home money to help keep her family afloat, but she also wanted time with her new baby. “I wanted some time for us to bond, especially since we got such a rocky start.” The studies that report putting newborns in childcare isn’t good for them worried her. Like many new parents, Selena had deeper emotional issues at play as well, “It scared and worried me just to think of leaving him before he was three months old. It made me sad because I didn’t want to give him away, I just got him. I worked very hard for him, and I wanted to have him with me all the time.”

Selena had never been comfortable with the idea of putting her new baby in childcare before he was three months old. Fortunately he could then go to the same trusted childcare provider that watched his older brother. Once he was born her mind was made up. She wanted Connor with her at work.

She recalls, “I asked if bringing Connor to work would be an option before he was born.” Her employer said they could discuss the option after he was born. Then when Connor was born, “I convinced the Executive Director that he had the perfect temperament for this arrangement. I desperately wanted to be with him and was very grateful to be able to spend time with him while earning the money I needed to feed and diaper him,” says Selena.

Her co-workers and supervisor were incredibly helpful. She comments, “It’s an office of all women who love babies.” Every afternoon one of her co-workers would take Connor for a walk around the building, usually at about 2 P.M. Another co-worker was in charge of taking care of him every time Selena had to go to a meeting, and still another co-worker took him for about a half hour every day to play. It was a team effort.

For her part, Selena perfected the art of using a half moonshaped blue Boppy pillow to hold her baby so she could breastfeed and type on her computer keyboard at the same time. At three months old, Connor started going to the childcare provider during the day as planned, and Selena remains employed at the same place now two years later.

This is a heartening example of an organization that found a way for a new parent to work with an infant. Since the United States doesn’t have a structure to support new parents in our society, Selena’s family likely would have been one of the families reflected in the statistic that 25 percent of new “poverty spells” start when a baby is born. Since her workplace stepped up to the plate, Selena did not have to face the excruciating choice of leaving her tiny baby or facing a “poverty spell.”²⁴

Unfortunately, not that many employers can or will offer that kind of flexibility to new parents. Selena’s solution isn’t widely available or possible in all jobs. There’s still a clear need for a national paid family leave program—not just for parents, but for businesses as well.

There are very real negative impacts on businesses due to the lack of a paid family leave policy in the United States. In The Price of Motherhood, Ann Crittenden writes, “With no right to a paid leave, many American mothers who want to stay at home with a new baby simply quit their jobs, and this interruption in employment costs them dearly in terms of lost income.” This turnover in employees cost companies too. Paid family leave is shown to also benefit employers by saving them the costs of recruitment and training due to high employee turnover, and leading to greater job satisfaction which then translates to higher worker productivity.²⁵

In each of the stories shared—that of Selena, Alfreda, and Christine—the edges of other motherhood issues are waiting to take center stage. The need for paid family leave comes at the beginning of a family life that commences with the birth of a daughter or son. As babies grow older, parents need work that allows them to also fulfill their family responsibilities. Flexible work hours, affordable healthcare, quality childcare, and living wages are critical pieces that, along with paid family leave, are all needed in order to help our families flourish. To truly value and support our nations’ children we must provide a solid foundation. Providing paid family leave is the first step.

Currently mothers are punished simply for being mothers— they are forced to make choices no one should have to make by mortgaging their futures to take care of their babies. Babiesrequire a period of intensive love and attention from their caregivers. Parents should be able to choose to provide this care joyfully, not under the threat of financial ruin. These babies are our most basic natural resource. In thirty years, when today’s adults are getting older, these babies will be the economic engine of our nation. We need to be sure our children have been provided with the nurturance required to become strong, intelligent citizens that carry our nation into the future.

Paid family leave is not a lofty idea, but rather a basic structural support we must put in place to ensure the health of our children and to make motherhood compatible with the workplace. We call on the nation, and every state within it, to give American mothers and families this critical support.