The Philip DeFranco Show - Why Paid Family Leave Is A HUGE Problem In America…

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, hello, welcome to your morning show. My name is Philip DeFranco and today we're gonna be talking about the conversation around paid family leave. If you don't know, as of right now, the United States is only one of five countries without guaranteed paid family leave and those other four are Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland. So in fact, the United States is alone in that it is the only industrialized country that doesn't guarantee workers paid family leave. But there has been a major push to change this. We've had moms like Ivanka Trump and Anne Hathaway showing support for a national policy. One in four American women go back to work two weeks after giving birth

Starting point is 00:00:33 because they can't afford to take off any more time than that. That's 25% of American women. We've all seen the likes of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talking extensively about taking extended leave after their children were born. You know, when talking about just regular everyday people,

Starting point is 00:00:48 in America, polls consistently show overwhelming support for a national paid family leave policy. According to a Pew Research Center study, 82% of workers say that mothers should receive paid leave after the birth of a child, and 69% support fathers taking time off as well. But despite having widespread support, it still hasn't been implemented

Starting point is 00:01:04 because we can't seem to agree on who or how to pay for it. But before we fully dive into that, let's talk about what paid family leave actually means. Simply enough, like the name suggests, it means getting paid to take time off for family needs. Notably, the definition can vary by country, but it generally includes things like becoming a parent, family emergencies, or caring for seriously ill family members. But today, we're only going to be focusing on that first point, which is parental leave. Now, most people think of it as maternity leave, where the mother gets time off to take care of a newborn, but there's also been a push to include paid time off for fathers, which is often overlooked, but also incredibly important, and Hathaway even touched on that in that UN speech.

Starting point is 00:01:34 The deeper into the issue of paid parental leave I go, the clearer I see the connection between persisting barriers to women's full equality and empowerment, and the need to redefine, and in some cases destigmatize, men's roles as caregivers. So, why is paid family leave so important? Why are we talking about it? Well, according to studies, paid parental leave can have a significant positive effect on the health of children and mothers. In fact, according to a 2011 study of 141 countries with paid leave policies, paid leave can reduce infant mortality by as much as 10% It can also drastically improve maternal mortality rates Which of course we talked about in another video a few weeks ago Paid leave can even increase the likelihood of infants seeing the doctor getting vaccinated

Starting point is 00:02:14 in fact one study found that children were about 25% more likely to get the measles vaccine and 22% more likely to get the polio vaccine when the mother had access to paid leave There are also mental health benefits according to a study by the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, women who took longer than 12 weeks leave reported fewer symptoms of depression and improvement in their overall mental health. And very notably, these benefits aren't only limited to moms. There's a study that found that dads in the US, UK, Denmark, and Australia who took parental leave of 10 or more days were more involved with their kids than those who didn't take that leave. And on top of all of that, there are also economic benefits as well.

Starting point is 00:02:46 With paid leave, men and women can split the burden of providing for a family and still contribute to the household income together. According to the Institute of Women's Policy Research, when paid leave is available, women don't feel pressured to decide between leaving their job or staying home with the baby or going back to work.

Starting point is 00:02:58 The research also shows that paid leave increases the likelihood that workers will return to work after childbirth and improves employee retention. It can also potentially help reduce government spending on public assistance and increase overall participation in the labor force and these are all arguably good things. But even with all this research highlighting the benefits, America still doesn't have a national

Starting point is 00:03:15 paid family leave policy. What we do have though is the Family and Medical Leave Act, FMLA, which was passed in 1993. And under the FMLA, most American workers can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid job protected leave to care for newborns or seriously ill family members. So, you're not getting paid, but you also won't get fired for taking time off to care for your new baby.

Starting point is 00:03:31 Also, quick note here, it also applies to other specific situations, but we have a focus today and we're not really gonna jump into those. So, how do you become eligible for FMLA leave? Well, for one, you have to work at the same place for at least 12 months. You also have to work for an employer covered under FMLA. If you're in the private sector, then you'll need to work for a company work for an employer covered under FMLA. If you're in the private sector,

Starting point is 00:03:45 then you'll need to work for a company with at least a staff of 50. And if you're in the public sector, you qualify for FMLA regardless of the number of employees. And as it stands now, FMLA is available to 60% of the workforce, although some smaller employers do offer unpaid leave, bringing that number closer to 89%.

Starting point is 00:03:59 But even with this option, there's evidence that there are a lot of eligible employees that don't take the leave when they need it because they can't afford to take 12 weeks of unpaid time off and even though that's the best option that most Americans have right now Employers are trying to make up for the lack of paid leave by providing their own option and as far as well who actually has paid family leave in America according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics only 17% of American workers are eligible for paid family leave one big reason why we even have that 17% is largely because businesses have stepped up to the plate to offer the option and they've done this to

Starting point is 00:04:25 Make up for the lack of a national paid family leave policy But with all that said that doesn't mean that politicians haven't tried suggesting different ways to fund a national paid family leave policy For example in 2018 Republican Senator Marco Rubio proposed a plan to provide paid parental leave benefits through Social Security and tapping into Social Security Benefits is actually a pretty common suggestion and the idea here is that a percentage of your Social Security benefits is set aside for paid family leave, kind of like a piggy bank. But thinking of Social Security as sort of a piggy bank has possible downsides. In exchange, you would have to delay collecting your Social Security benefits if you're still aiming

Starting point is 00:04:53 to collect the same amount when you retire. It would also potentially impact women more than men because they're more likely to take parental leave and spend longer periods caring for their newborns at home. And of course, it has to be mentioned, it would add to the Social Security Administration's workload, which is already backlogged and struggling to work through things like disability claim meanwhile other possible solutions that have been suggested is enacting new federal taxes in 2013 You had Democratic senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Brian Schatz proposing the Family Act and under this new law workers would receive 12 weeks of leave

Starting point is 00:05:17 At two-thirds their salary with a cap of a thousand dollars a week and a program like this is estimated to cost more than 20 Billion dollars a year and to fund it legislation would Increase the payroll tax contribution for workers and companies by 0.2% But that bill didn't even make it to the House floor and since then it has been reintroduced multiple times another proposed solution to offering Paid family leave has been to rely on individual states as of February 2019 California, New Jersey Rhode Island and New York offer state paid family leave and medical leave insurance also, Washington DC enacted a law in 2017 That's gonna come into effect July 2020. Washington state will begin providing benefits

Starting point is 00:05:48 in January 2020. Massachusetts is set to provide benefits starting January 2021. And so actually what we've seen is that paid family leave has become a major legislative priority on the state level. I mean this year alone about two dozen other states are expected to consider proposals that offer paid family leave for workers.

Starting point is 00:06:02 Also another popular take is that the government should provide tax credits to employers who offer paid leave. And this was originally conceived by Republican Senator Deb Fischer and actually included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. And according to Pew, 45% of Americans strongly favor this approach.

Starting point is 00:06:15 Businesses that provide at least two weeks of paid family and medical leave would receive a tax credit ranging from 12.5 to 25% of the cost of each hour of paid leave. But there are also limits. The businesses are only able to apply the credit towards workers who earn below 72,000 a year. And the tax credit is only available

Starting point is 00:06:29 under a two year pilot program that's set to expire at the end of this year. Now, with all that said, we've taken a look at the possible ideas around America. How can America have national paid leave? Let's look at other countries where paid parental leave is available for both moms and dads. In Australia, for example, there is a legal requirement

Starting point is 00:06:44 to provide 12 months maternity leave unpaid. But a new mom with an annual salary of up to $150,000 can get paid $695 per week for up to 18 weeks. And this applies to someone at a company of virtually any size, a small business, a one person service, anyone. As far as the new dads, they get two weeks of paid leave at the same rate.

Starting point is 00:07:01 In France, moms get 16 weeks off for maternity leave and if you already have two kids, the 16 weeks is extended to 26 weeks. Also, if you're expecting twins, one, good luck, but also two, in France you get 34 weeks. And if you need to extend your leave, you can tap into parental leave, which is actually separate from maternity leave

Starting point is 00:07:16 and lasts a year. As far as the dads in France, they can take three days off for the birth of their baby and paternity leave for an additional 11 days, or 18 days if they're having more than one baby. And both parents in these situations can receive a daily wage equal to that of their average wage before going on leave.

Starting point is 00:07:29 Also, in some countries, parents can even share their time off. In Denmark, for example, parents get 52 weeks of paid parental leave. And the general rule there is that the mother has the right to four weeks of leave before the birth, and then another 14 weeks after the birth. And the dads are entitled to two weeks of leave

Starting point is 00:07:41 during the first 14 weeks after birth, and parents share the additional 32 weeks. And actually, this shared parental leave policy is also available in the UK, where parents can share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay. Dads in the UK can get one or two weeks of paid maternity leave, depending on the circumstance.

Starting point is 00:07:55 Moms are entitled to a full year of maternity leave and can get paid for up to 39 weeks. One of the biggest and most important notes here is that all of those policies we just talked about, they are tax funded, which makes it hard to try to implement something like this in America. Because while there is overwhelming support for a national initiative here in the States,

Starting point is 00:08:10 the moment there is a mention of a new or increased tax, people jump ship. For example, according to the conservative think tank, the Cato Institute, when no costs are mentioned, 74% are in support of paid family leave. But if the suggested cost is $450 a year, that number drops to just 48%. Some people also argue that paid leave could hurt long-term prospects for an employee for example when Spain passed a new law in 1999 Allowing parents flexibility better paid leave more women than men made use of the opportunity and this eventually caused employers to be 5% less likely

Starting point is 00:08:37 To hire a woman of childbearing age relative to men and among those working employees were 40 to 45% more likely to let childbearing age Women go from jobs and 37% less likely to promote them. Also, I mean, even earlier this month, there was a former executive filing a lawsuit against Netflix alleging that she was let go after disclosing her pregnancy. And of note there, of all the tech companies in the United States,

Starting point is 00:08:55 Netflix currently offers the longest paid parental leave. Salaried employees can take up to a year off at full pay following the birth or adoption of a child. But according to the lawsuit, the company, quote, secretly retaliates against anyone who makes use of the policy. But on to the lawsuit, the company, quote, secretly retaliates against anyone who makes use of the policy. But on the other side of this,

Starting point is 00:09:07 Netflix responded with a statement saying that these claims were unfounded. And so you have examples like that that are reasons why so many in the United States are concerned about the long-term effects of implementing a paid family leave policy on a national level. Even so, the idea still seems to be gaining

Starting point is 00:09:18 a lot of momentum. If you don't remember, at his second State of the Union address, President Trump called for the creation of a plan for national paid family leave. Now, he didn't elaborate on any specific details, but he did highlight the inclusion of said plan in the annual budget.

Starting point is 00:09:29 Also in early February, we saw Senator Gillibrand again reintroducing the Family Act. But this time the bill goes before a House with a Democratic majority, but of course still a Congress and Executive branch controlled by Republicans. Also in March, we saw two Republican senators introducing the Cradle Act, which is very similar to Marco Rubio's proposal for a Social Security

Starting point is 00:09:44 deferment policy. The main point here being there is a Lot of talk and a lot of focus on this but with all of that said it brings us to the part of the video Where I'd love to know your thoughts on are you in favor of paid family leave? Do you think a government-funded paid family leave policy in the United States is feasible? Do you have a personal experience with an employer who offers the option? Do you live in a different country and you have a different experience the good the bad the thoughts whatever you have Let me know down below.

Starting point is 00:10:05 And of course, remember, if you like this video, you like jumping into this deep dive with us, let us know, hit that like button, it's free. Also, if you're new here, you want more, we post seven videos a week, be sure to subscribe, definitely click that bell to turn on notifications. But, with that said, of course, as always, thanks for watching, I love your face, and I'll see you right back here on this channel later today with a brand new Philip DeFranco show.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - Why Paid Family Leave Is A HUGE Problem In America…

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