Obama Encouraging Family-Friendly Work Policies

President Barack Obama said Monday that the United States should join the rest of the industrialized world and offer paid leave for mothers of newborns.

“Many women can’t even get a paid day off [to have a baby] — now that’s a pretty low bar,” Obama said at the White House Summit on Working Families. “That, we should be able to take care of.”

The president is talking about paid family leave in the midst of a midterm election campaign focused on women voters, raising questions about how he would fund such a system. “If France can figure this out, we can figure this out,” Obama said.

While some companies offer paid family leave to attract workers, the 1993 Family Medical Leave Act only requires that employers provide unpaid leave for medical and family reasons.

Obama praised California, Rhode Island and New Jersey for creating a state benefit. But he has not endorsed legislation that would create a similar national system funded by a payroll tax, and he pledged in his 2008 presidential campaign not to raise taxes on families making under $250,000 a year.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)  has introduced legislation that would provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave through a fund in the Social Security Administration, paid for by contributions from employees and employers of 0.2 percent of wages. She said she has personally encouraged the president to back it and hopes he will, despite his tax pledge.

“We’re talking about 2 cents of every $10,” she said in an interview at the summit. She said without such a fund, eight out of 10 workers can’t take advantage of their right for family leave because they can’t afford it.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the June 24th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.