Paid parental leave in Pennsylvania would benefit all of us
Today in homes across Pennsylvania and the United States, parents and caregivers are forced to make a difficult choice. Do I stay home and care for my newborn infant, or do I leave them to work and earn the pay we need to survive? This daunting choice has haunting implications for infants, families, public health and for the economy.
For me, the more I work with, provide support for and research the postpartum period, it’s clear that comprehensive paid family leave would make it easier (not just for mothers, which is how it is often framed), but for everyone.
Paid family leave allows people to balance work and family without sacrificing or potentially jeopardizing their futures. Advocates have been saying the same thing for years, paid family leave is an effective tool that would make it possible for parents to raise their children and remain in the workforce.
Paid family leave can benefit child health, improve child cognitive development and academic achievement, maternal and paternal mental health, family relationships and financial health. The financial burden of unpaid family leave can be even more destructive for families with lower incomes.
Pew Research found that among Americans who took time off work in the past two years with households under $30,000 in income, 22% reported they received full pay, 14% received only some of their regular pay and 62% received no pay. As a result, 57% of household incomes under $30,000 who didn’t receive full pay took on debt and about half (48%) went on public assistance, demonstrating the macroeconomic implications of paid family leave.
Yet, despite this, the United States is one of the only developed countries in the world that doesn’t offer a national paid family or medical leave policy. The U.S. Department of Labor defines paid family or medical leave as longer-term leave to
care for a new child or ill family members.
Due to the lack of a national policy, a growing number of states are taking matters into their own hands to fill the gap. As of January, 13 states have passed paid family and medical leave laws, including our neighbor states Maryland and Delaware, but Pennsylvania has not yet stepped in to fill the gap.
A study from the U.S. Department of Labor supports an open-source, publicly available Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation model that estimates the effects of worker leave scenarios and policy options to support individual leave needs and behaviors and estimate the benefits and costs of administering a
paid leave program.
The example analyses performed by the microsimulation tool uses a bill proposed in the state House by Rep. Dan Miller, D-Allegheny, that would include but is not limited to 1) up to 12 weeks for bonding with a new child; 2) a maximum of 20 weeks in a benefit year for all reasons (including medical leave reasons, i.e., caring for family members or your own serious health conditions); 3) coverage for private and state/local employees, and an opt-in for those are are self-employed; and 4) eligibility for employees who worked or contributed for 18 weeks in the last 12 months and earned at least $2,718.
Based on the results of the
simulation model, if this policy were implemented, each year, 261,500 workers would claim program benefits for 290,600 family and medical leave reasons. The contributions collected from employees and employers totals about $2.5 billion, and would cover the bonding leave, medical leave benefits and administrative expenses.
Research from the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt University and Children First of Pennsylvania found that each year, bonding leave would result in a net benefit of $379 million to families, employers and the Pennsylvania government, outweighing costs, giving employees significant financial
returns double or more than the premiums they paid and elevating Pennsylvania’s ranking on resources available to working families.
The lifetime benefits of adopting this policy are even greater for society, supporting strengthened families, resulting in healthier and more productive individuals that uplift strong communities and economies. Will the commonwealth take the huge step forward joining other states to improve health and development across the life course of all families?