HOW TO VALUE CHILDCARE

The federal government is increasing parental leave, which critics suggest hurts employers in the short and long run. Here’ s one reader’ s solution

As along-time advocate for women’ s rights, I get your point and agree that employers may balk at hiring women of child-bearing age( A parental warning, December 2015). I also see that women given such leave may take it and may not return to the paid job, causing“problems” for employers. My answer though is kind of revolutionary. It is to not make employers take that hit. They do not benefit from women being home with babies. They should not have to pay for it.

My answer is to have governments value the care of kids, and not tie this support to paid work. Then, if a woman or man chooses to have a baby and be home with it, that is their personal decision and not a cost to their paid work at all. They do not lose money though, because for a while universal state-funded benefits kick into value the child. The parents can use this money for day care, sitter and/ or nanny to offset some salary loss as they take less intense jobs or ones with less travel or that operate from a homebased office or take time off from earning at all.

That’ s democracy. Nobody takes a penalty because the decisions are personal not business.

The revolutionary part of this is that it means that the care of a child is useful to society. It is not a glitch or for given departure from useful work, but is itself useful work. The UN was developing this concept about unpaid care roles, as they were worth one-third of the GDP if counted in 1997. It is still working on the concept because women are not happy to be valued only for their paid work. Slowly that big tideisshifting.

I sympathize with employers and they should not be blamed or penalized. If women or men are really good at the job, they will be hired back because they are good. They do not deserve guaranteed re hire if they are not good at the job. And if some parents choose to not return to that paid job, are they taking a career penalty? Well, it depends on what you call a career. Some may feel that taking care of a child is also a vital role in society and nothing to be ashamed of. I was home with my four kids for many years. I taught school before and had little trouble getting hired back.