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Family leave insurance legislation helps economy
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For many people, there鈥檚 no happier moment than the day you welcome a child into the world. With so many emotions to deal with, and so many things to prepare for, the last thing you need to worry about is whether or not you鈥檒l be getting paid.
At UncommonGoods, we make sure that our more than 100 team members can welcome a new child without that hassle. Recently, President Obama gave the same benefit to federal contractors.
But many businesses in the US don鈥檛 provide this benefit. They may couch that decision in terms of cost 鈥 claiming it would hurt their bottom line 鈥 but that鈥檚 short-sighted. More importantly, it鈥檚 shifting their costs onto the government, when new parents are forced to go on public assistance. That raises taxes for all of us, including businesses that provide paid leave.
And right now, federal law is severely lacking: The US is the only developed country in the world that doesn鈥檛 guarantee paid time off following childbirth. The existing Family and Medical Leave Insurance Act guarantees some time off, but it covers less than half of the American workforce 鈥 and the leave is unpaid. Many employees can鈥檛 afford that.
Anyone who runs a business knows that their most valuable asset is their team. Losing good employees is costly. Just hiring and training a replacement can cost thousands, not to mention the lost productivity when the position is unfilled.
Furthermore, not offering benefits like paid leave makes it more difficult to attract and retain capable employees.
Considering the costs of employee turnover 鈥 the average costs of replacing a worker earning less than US$50,000 can be 20 percent of their salary, by one estimate 鈥 this is not a forward-thinking business strategy.
At our company, new mothers get four weeks of paid leave, plus up to seven sick days, following childbirth; employees whose spouse or partner has given birth will get two weeks. Families that have recently adopted a child also get two weeks. And that鈥檚 before we get into the paid sick days, short-term disability insurance, or flex time that we offer all of our year-round employees.
We鈥檙e not doing this because we鈥檙e a social service organization. We鈥檙e doing it because it makes good business sense 鈥 because happier team members work harder and stick around longer.
We鈥檇 encourage all businesses to offer these benefits. Until then, we鈥檇 like to see paid leave be the law of the land. Government assistance should not enable businesses to shirk their responsibilities to their employees and force taxpayers to pick up the slack.
That鈥檚 why we support legislation that would expand paid family leave to all American employees.
Some in Congress say that it would place an undue burden on business. Our experience shows the opposite: Paid leave is a wise investment, both for businesses and the country.
We offer paid leave because it鈥檚 the right thing to do, and that鈥檚 not going to change. But we鈥檙e also working with groups like the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) to promote this legislation because we can prove just how important this can be to a business like ours.
Paid leave helped us attract a strong team, and it helps us keep them on board with us. As it turns out, taxpayers and the entire economy benefit too.
Bolotsky is Founder and CEO of UncommonGoods, an online marketplace based in New York City. Copyright: American Forum. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.
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