Paid family and medical leave is no laughing matter
Paid leave shouldn’t be a punchline. But some politicians and talk-show hosts treat it as a joke that a worker would take time off to care for a child or other family member.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been criticized for taking leave to care for his newborn children. He and his husband adopted twins in August, one of whom recently spent time in the hospital.
Podcast host Joe Rogan mocked the idea that a man would take paternity leave. Cable show host Tucker Carlson also made fun of Buttigieg for taking leave, tossing in a homophobic statement to boot. Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado made similar comments while boasting that she delivered one of her children on the front seat of her truck.
Only in America would delivering a kid in a pickup so you can keep working be considered a point of pride. But in reality, Rogan, Carlson and Boebert are not representative of the majority of Americans in their views on family leave.
An advocacy group that promotes paid leave policies surveyed likely voters from Florida and six other battleground states in May, finding that 84% of them — including 74% of Republicans — support paid leave. Other polls have also found overwhelming support for such policies.
The real joke is that the U.S. is one of only six countries in the world — and the only wealthy country — with no national paid leave. Joe Biden promised during the presidential campaign to create a national family and medical leave program that gives all workers up to 12 weeks of paid leave.
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The program is among those that were sliced, diced and finally cut entirely from the spending plan that was still awaiting a congressional vote as this piece was being written. The program was initially reduced to four weeks of leave — which would still make the U.S. an outlier, with just 26 of the 174 countries that offer paid leave for a personal health problem providing four weeks or fewer — before being removed from the legislation in negotiations.
The decision is incredibly disappointing given the importance of leave to U.S. workers and families. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the need for policies allowing workers to care for sick family members at home, while still being able to pay their bills.
Maternity and paternity leave provide benefits to both children and parents. Studies show babies benefit from staying home longer with parents, which reduces hospitalizations from infectious and increases breastfeeding and immunization rates. Research has also found that granting paid maternity leave allows more women to stay in the workforce.
But the leave program’s removal from the spending bill isn’t all bad news. Some business groups and GOP proponents believe it could still pass as separate legislation, rather than being included in the massive bill that Republicans oppose. But the devil is in the details: Republicans such as Sen. Marco Rubio of the Florida propose leave that would need to be repaid — with interest — through cuts in recipients’ Social Security benefits.
There is no time to wait in passing a more meaningful paid leave program. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 allows for 12 weeks of leave that is unpaid and only for those at workplaces with more than 50 employees. Currently, just 21% of U.S. workers have access to paid family leave and about 40% have emergency medical leave.
The federal workforce is among those with better benefits, with federal workers getting 12 weeks of paid leave. You shouldn’t have to be appointed transportation secretary to take paid leave in our country.
Nathan Crabbe is The Sun's opinion and engagement editor. Follow him at twitter.com/nathancrabbe and www.facebook.com/nathancrabbe.
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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Nathan Crabbe: Paid family and medical leave should be provided in US
