Time to Pass Paid Family Leave in New York State

By Pearl Brady

Papua New Guinea, the southwestern Pacific nation known for its beaches, rainforests, and picturesque volcanoes, has a GDP of about $15 billion and one of the worst rates of gender-based violence in the world. It’s not often compared to the United States (with its GDP of about $16.7 trillion), but Papua New Guinea and the U.S. have one very important thing in common.

They are the only two countries in the world that fail to offer any guaranteed paid family leave to new parents.

Twenty-two years after the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows some employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, was signed into law, significant holes still remain in employment policies for working families. As the economic recovery has seen the numbers of middle-class jobs shrink and low-wage jobs proliferate, more Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and have much less in savings than previous generations. In fact, a recent report from the Community Service Society, which surveyed low-income women who had returned to work only weeks after giving birth, found that almost half of respondents said they had less than $500 in savings, and more than a quarter said they had no savings at all.

Unpaid leave means choosing between your family and your job. For many Americans, that means sending infants only a few weeks old off to daycare while their parents go back to work, with many mothers barely healed after giving birth.

Only three states have passed paid family leave laws: California, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. Each state has seen their paid leave programs met with extreme popularity and economic growth. The common concern that such programs would be the death knell for small businesses has not become a reality. A study of California’s program showed that 87% of businesses reported no increased cost to them from the program, and 9% said they actually saved money by having less turnover and fewer people using benefit programs.

New York is close to being state number four.

A bill passed by the New York State Assembly in March would expand the state’s temporary disability insurance (TDI) program to cover two-thirds of workers’ average weekly wage up to about $600 per week for up to 12 weeks to care for a new child or seriously ill family member. The law would also protect the jobs of workers who take paid family leave, allowing workers the peace of mind to know they have a job to which they can come back. Because paid family leave would be paid for by a small payroll deduction attached to the TDI program (estimated to be about $.88 a week per employee once the program was fully implemented), there is no additional cost to employers and would not create new additional administrative requirements for businesses. In fact, it would allow smaller businesses to compete with larger businesses that already offer a paid family leave benefit, leveling the playing field for local family companies. Additionally, paid family leave increases employee morale, boosts productivity, and retains good employees, saving the cost of retraining new employees.

Paid family leave would be hugely beneficial to the working families of New York City. A recent report from the NYC Department of Health showed that in 2012, 120,855 women in New York City gave birth to 123,231 infants, and 57 percent of those mothers worked for pay at least some time during their pregnancy. Seventy percent of those women had returned or intended to return to work four months post-partum. For women with incomes under the Federal Poverty Level, a shocking 69 percent only had access to unpaid leave, compared to just 25 percent of women whose incomes were more than twice the FPL. Thirty-two percent of women who returned to work did so because they could not afford to take leave, and 26 percent of women who took only unpaid leave reported concerns about having enough food for their families.

Paid family leave isn’t just a concern for families with new children; it’s a critical support mechanism for the caring of aging parents. AARP estimates that two in three workers aged 45 to 74 assist an aging parent or other adult loved one. Paid leave for the care of ailing family members boosts health outcomes for older Americans and results in less time spent in hospitals and other long-term care facilities. With the 65 and older population estimated to grow to 19 percent of the population in 2030 (up from 12.4 percent in the year 2000), access to paid time off to look after the health and safety of older relatives will affect tens of millions of Americans each year, many of whom live in New York State. Without paid family leave, millions of older New Yorkers and their children will be left with extremely limited options.

The status quo of leaving paid family leave up to employers is not working.

New York State can and should do better than countries like Mongolia, Uzbekistan, and Rwanda that currently do offer paid family leave. The Paid Family Leave Act has passed the New York State Assembly, and it is time for the New York State Senate to follow suit so the bill can be sent to Governor Andrew Cuomo for his signature.

For less than the cost of one small cup of joe from a coffee cart per week, working New Yorkers will have access to the paid family leave offerings that every other industrialized nation offers its people as a right of citizenship. New Yorkers deserve it, and it’s time for the State Senate to act. Having a baby is a life-changing event that is already stressful enough; no one should be forced to choose between caring for their baby and keeping their job.

Pearl Brady is a member of Planned Parenthood of New York City Action Fund’s Activist Council and is Chair of the Legislative Action Committee of the Political Action Group.