Real Paid Leave Values All Care
The most rewarding part of my job is talking with people who are fighting for paid leave. They experience some life event that requires care – a bout of cancer, a parent with a stroke, a child needing surgery – and while they worry about the outcome, they also have to worry about keeping food on the table and a roof over their heads. All of these folks were happy to hear a Senate committee was holding a hearing on paid leave. But their first question was: Will this proposal include me and my family?
Sen. Marco Rubio is introducing a bill for what he calls parental leave. But it applies only to parents of a newborn or newly adopted child. Staci Lowry wants to know what to call the leave she needed when her 4-year-old daughter had a stroke.
“Kids don’t just get born – they also get sick,” Staci told hundreds of people on a July 10 tele-townhall. “This was my baby and I wasn’t going to leave her side.” With no paid leave, Staci lost her job at a large corporation. She also lost her home.
Joining her at that tele-townhall was Stephanie Tucker from Collingdale, Pennsylvania. She can’t understand why the Rubio bill wouldn’t cover her or others recovering from cancer. Stephanie’s still dealing with debt from the unpaid time she took during her surgery. This summer she’s working throughout her radiation. “There are days I don’t feel well, I’m still hurting or my skin is burning,” she said. “But I would miss my pay, so I go in. You tell the car company you’re going through cancer treatment, and they still say, ‘When can you pay?’”
Kris Garcia from Denver, Colorado, also spoke on the call. She had only four unpaid days to be at her father’s side when he needed critical surgery in Texas. “On top of the anguish, those four days of unpaid time had economic consequences,” Kris said. “I fell behind on my car payment and couldn’t pay my light bill.” Her father’s condition deteriorated and, to her horror, Kris had to make decisions over the phone about taking him off life support.
“All I could think about was my father being alone as he took his final breath,” Kris said. “That day was the turning point for me.” Kris also wants to make sure that paid leave includes those in the LGBTQ community “who have family members related not by blood or marriage but by long bonds of care and commitment. Our families count, too.”
Staci, Stephanie and Kris have all become activists, working in coalitions with a wide array of partners to make sure no one has to endure that kind of pain. Staci put it this way: “All the people that make decisions based on me and my family’s needs have never had a conversation with me about what I need. I need to be self-sufficient, be able to provide for and care for myself and my loved ones without risking my job or my income. Sen. Rubio’s bill would exclude me. It would also leave out those caring for parents or partners or their own health. And the amount of the benefit, less than half your wage, isn’t enough money for most parents of a new child to live on. His plan would also cut Social Security benefits – no one in my world can afford that.”
Dr. Mary Margaret Gleason told those on the call that research confirms what Staci experienced: Children have better health outcomes and are able to leave the hospital earlier with a parent at their side. Being alone in the hospital for children or adults can cause PTSD. Caregiving after discharge from the hospital is also essential for recovery.
Small business owner Sabrina Parsons from Eugene, Oregon, explained why the majority of small businesses support a social insurance model for funding paid leave. Most can’t afford to offer paid leave on their own, and that means losing employees, who “must choose their families and their health over their jobs.” Turnover comes with a high price for small businesses. “Putting something like this together, making it as easy as filing for unemployment, will improve all our small businesses and our economy,” she said.
Sen. Kristen Gillibrand and Washington State Senator Joe Fain also took time to join the tele-townhall. Sen. Fain, a Republican, helped convince the majority of his Republican colleagues to support a similar program in Washington with provisions for even stronger wage replacement and longer duration. “I know we can make this bipartisan,” he said.
Sen. Gillibrand is lead sponsor in the Senate for the FAMILY Act, a modest minimum of paid leave from a sustainable source that is inclusive of the well-established categories of care – welcoming a new child as well as caring for a serious personal or family illness, or needs arising from military deployment. “We can have comprehensive paid leave and save for retirement at the same time,” Sen. Gillibrand said.
Listen to the town-hall.
[sc_embed_player_template1 fileurl=”https://familyvaluesatwork.org/audio/wfsc-teletownhall-july-2018.mp3″]
TAKE ACTION:
1. Email your Senators, senator@[last name of senator].senate.gov
2. Call your Senators
3. Send a message to Congress
By Ellen Bravo, co-director of Family Values @ Work
