Group pushes for paid family leave law
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Women and Girls Foundation will take a lead role in a statewide campaign to push for mandatory paid family leave in Pennsylvania.
The campaign is the centerpiece of the foundation’s new, three-year strategic plan that also includes launching a crowdfunding site to support other nonprofits whose mission is to assist women and families.
With paid family leave laws already on the books in a handful of states and paid sick day laws adopted recently in a number of cities, including Pittsburgh, “It feels like this is the moment” to make a case for Pennsylvania to enact legislation, said Heather Arnet, chief executive of the South Side-based foundation.
Though specifics have yet to be crafted, Ms. Arnet envisions a law in Pennsylvania that would allow workers to take paid time off — in chunks of several days or weeks at a time — to care for immediate family members. The law would establish paid leave insurance similar to unemployment compensation, with employers paying into a fund administered by the state.
Federal law currently guarantees up to 12 weeks of unpaid family medical leave annually for workers at firms with 50 or more employees.
States with paid family leave laws in place are California, Rhode Island and New Jersey. New York passed legislation that will take effect in 2018. While Washington
state passed a paid family leave law in 2007, it has yet to be enacted.
In states where the laws have been implemented, paid leaves range from a maximum four to six weeks annually and the amount of compensation varies.
On Tuesday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared near Philadelphia to unveil his proposed policies to support families, including a plan to guarantee six weeks of paid maternity leave. Mr. Trump’s proposal would benefit mothers only — not fathers.
The Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, has proposed 12 weeks of paid family leave.
Among the reasons the Women and Girls Foundation has chosen to focus on paid family leave, Ms. Arnet said, is the issue has the potential to impact women across the economic spectrum and it aligns with the group’s ongoing efforts to achieve gender pay equity.
“Women often leave the workforce [when a family member needs care] and they lose economic stability,” she said. “They are also then at an earnings disadvantage when they re-enter the workforce.”
With both men and women covered, “There should be less gender stigmatizing over who can and will use family leave.”
To develop the campaign in Pennsylvania, the foundation will partner with Pathways PA, a Philadelphia nonprofit that advocates for public policies that benefit low-wage workers; and with Family Values @ Work, a Milwaukee, Wis.-based network of state and local coalitions that promote familyfriendly workplace policies.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau provided Pennsylvania a grant of $250,000 to study the feasibility of paid family and medical leave. That grant, awarded to the state Department of Labor & Industry, will be used to analyze the cost benefits of paid family leave models, how to fund it, who would benefit from it, and for education and outreach efforts.
While Ms. Arnet is optimistic a law could be drafted and perhaps passed during the next three years, “It’s reliant on legislators and the governor’s office being open to this. So far we have had positive response from both sides of the aisle.”
The foundation introduced its new strategic plan Wednesday at a reception at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, Downtown.
Founded in 2002, the foundation’s initiatives include GirlGov, a program for high school girls that provides training in government and public policy issues; and programs and events to raise awareness of the gender pay gap such as Equal Pay Day rallies.
The foundation also makes grants to other nonprofits that work on behalf of women’s equality and issues that benefit women and families. It distributes about $100,000 in grants annually.
As part of its new strategy, the foundation will eliminate grantmaking and instead direct donors to an online crowdfunding site that will allow them to contribute to organizations that complement the foundation’s mission.
A pilot crowdfunding site under development will include 10 to 12 organizations that the foundation has funded in the past including Just Harvest, the Women’s Law Project and the Midwife Center for Birth and Women’s Health.
According to its 2014 federal tax filing, the foundation has assets of about $420,000. It has no endowment and relies on donations to fund its programming and administrative costs.