Tomorrow,
the President will unveil new proposals to strengthen the middle class by
giving working families the flexibility to balance their families and jobs and
giving all Americans the opportunity to earn sick days. Building on the
steps the Administration announced last year during the first-ever White House
Summit on Working Families, tomorrow’s announcement includes:
· Calling on Congress, as well as States and
cities, to pass legislation that would allow millions of working Americans to
earn up to seven days of paid sick time per year;
· Proposing more than $2 billion in new funds
to encourage states to develop paid family and medical leave programs and
announcing that the Department of Labor will use $1 million in existing funds
to help States and municipalities conduct feasibility studies; and
· Modernizing the Federal workplace by signing
a Presidential Memorandum directing agencies to advance up to six weeks of paid
sick leave for parents with a new child and calling on Congress to pass
legislation giving federal employees an additional six weeks of paid parental
leave.
The challenge of balancing work and family
has grown as families have shifted so that
today in most families all parents work and all parents contribute to
caregiving. Across married and single parent families, all parents are
working in more than 60 percent of households with children, up from 40 percent
in 1965. And today, more than 60 percent of women with children under the
age of 5 participate in the labor force, compared with around 30 percent in the
1970s. Yet the fundamental structure of work has not kept pace with the
changing American family, and many families are struggling to balance
obligations at home and on the job. In fact, the United States remains the only
developed country in the world that does not offer paid maternity leave.
That is why the President is announcing
additional efforts to help working families that build on the steps he
announced at last June’s White House Summit, including support for states to
design paid leave programs and a Presidential Memorandum that established a
“right to request” flexible workplace arrangements for Federal workers and
directed Federal agencies to expand flexible workplace policies to the maximum
possible extent. The White House Council on
Economic Advisers also released a report last
June on the economic benefits of paid leave.
EXPANDING ACCESS TO EARNED SICK DAYS
When 43 million private-sector workers are
without any paid sick leave, too many workers are unable to take the time they
need to recover from an illness. Many workers will go to work sick, putting
their coworkers and customers at risk of illness. And even if workers have
access to paid sick leave for themselves, they may not be able to use it to
care for sick children. This forces many parents to choose between taking
an unpaid day off work—losing much needed income and potentially threatening
his or her job—and sending a child who should be home in bed to school.
Just as importantly, a body of research
shows that offering paid sick days and paid family leave can benefit employers
by reducing turnover and increasing productivity. Paid sick days would
help reduce lost productivity due to the spread of illness in the workplace.
And these policies can benefit our economy by fostering a more productive
workforce. Policies that better support working families can meet the
needs of both employers and employees alike, and strengthen America’s
economy. For this reason, it is no surprise that many businesses see the
benefit of employees earning sick days. Two years after passage of a law
requiring workers to earn paid sick days in Connecticut, more than
three-quarters of employers responding to a survey indicated that they
supported the new law, and employers reported that there were little or no
negative effects of the new law on their bottom line.
Tomorrow, the President will:
· Call on Congress to pass the Healthy
Families Act. The Healthy Families Act, championed by Rep.
Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Patty Murray, would allow millions of working Americans
to earn up to seven days per year of paid sick time. Workers could use
this time to care for themselves or a sick family member, obtain preventive
care, or address the impacts of domestic violence.
· Call on States and cities to pass similar
laws. While Congress
considers the Healthy Families Act, states and localities should waste
no time in passing their own laws allowing workers to earn sick leave. In
2006, San Francisco became the first locality in the Nation to guarantee access
to earned sick days. In 2008, the District of Columbia followed suit,
passing a paid sick days law that also included paid “safe” days for victims of
domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. In 2011, Connecticut
became the first state to pass a statewide paid sick days law. It was
followed by California and this year, voters in Massachusetts supported
earned sick days by overwhelming majority. A number of cities have also
recently enacted laws allowing workers to earn and accrue sick leave, including
Seattle, Portland, New York City, Newark, San Diego, Eugene, and Oakland.
EXPANDING ACCESS TO PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL
LEAVE
Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
(FMLA), many workers may take up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off without losing
their job to care for a new child, recover from a serious illness, or care for
an ill family member (roughly 60 percent of workers are eligible for the
law’s protections). However, employers are not required to provide paid
leave for these purposes and often choose to make it unpaid. For too many
Americans, unpaid leave is unaffordable. Moreover, evidence shows that mothers,
who do typically take some time off in order to give birth, are more likely to
return to their jobs and to stay in the workforce if they are able to take paid
maternity leave. Tomorrow, the President will:
· Outline a new plan to help more states
create paid leave programs. Three
states—California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island—have launched programs offering
paid family and medical leave, and President Obama believes that more can be
done to promote state action. His FY 2016 Budget will propose $2.2
billion in mandatory funding to reimburse up to five states for three years for
the administrative costs and roughly half of the cost of benefits associated
with implementing a program. The President’s Budget will also include $35
million in competitive grants to assist states that are still building the
administrative infrastructure they would need to launch paid leave programs in
the future.
· Provide new funding for feasibility studies. The Department of Labor is announcing
that, using existing funds this year, it will offer $1 million in new funding
for its Paid Leave Analysis Grant Program, providing competitive grants to six
to ten states or municipalities to conduct
paid leave feasibility studies. These grants will be administered by the
Women’s Bureau and builds on the tremendous response to last year’s grant
program that provided a total of $500,000 to programs in three states and the
District of Columbia.
· Propose legislation to provide paid family
leave to federal workers. While
Federal workers already have access to paid sick leave and vacation time, the
government has fallen behind industry-leading companies and offers no paid time
off specifically for family or parental leave. In order to recruit and
retain the best possible workforce to provide outstanding service to American
taxpayers, the President is proposing legislation similar to the Federal
Employees Paid Parental Leave Act championed by Rep. Maloney. The President’s proposal
would provide Federal employees with six weeks of paid administrative leave for
the birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child. In addition, the
proposal would allow parents to use sick days to care for a healthy child after
a birth mother’s period of incapacitation or after an adoption.
· Take action to modernize federal parental
leave policy. Tomorrow,
the President will sign a Presidential Memorandum directing agencies to allow
for the advance of six weeks of paid sick leave for parents with a new child,
employees caring for ill family members, and other sick leave-eligible
uses. This will allow mothers the opportunity to recuperate after child
birth, even if they have not yet accrued enough sick leave. It will also
allow spouses and partners to care for mothers during their recuperation
periods and will allow both parents to attend proceedings relating to the
adoption of a child. Advanced annual leave is to be made available to
employees for placement of a foster child in their home. Finally, the
Presidential Memorandum directs agencies to consider a benefit some agencies
already offer—help finding, and in some cases providing, emergency backup care
for children, seniors, and adults with disabilities that parents can use when
they need to go to work but their regular care is not available. Some
agencies provide this benefit through their Employee Assistance Program, and it
can help parents with a temporary need for safe care for their children.
