Obama urges family-friendly work policies
Print Edition
US President Barack Obama is encouraging more employers to adopt family-friendly policies by hosting a daylong summit yesterday, and says he wants to change America’s dubious distinction as the only industrialized nation that doesn’t mandate paid leave for mothers of newborns.
Obama’s initiative comes in a midterm election year focused in many respects on women voters, and the White House was devoting all its star power to the event. Obama planned to speak midday and have a meeting with business leaders. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, were to open the event, first lady Michelle Obama will deliver a closing speech and several other administration officials are participating on panels.
“Only three countries in the world report that they don’t offer paid maternity leave — three — and the United States is one of them,” Obama said in his weekly address. “It’s time to change that. A few states have acted on their own to give workers paid family leave, but this should be available to everyone, because all Americans should be able to afford to care for a family member in need.”
Obama said in an interview broadcast yesterday on CNN’s “New Day” that he took a month off when his older daughter, Malia, was born.
He called it “one of the most precious memories that I’ll ever have” and said the middle-of-the-night feedings created an irreplaceable bond. “We have unpaid family leave right now but for a whole lot of families it means they can’t use it because they just can’t afford it,” he said.
California, Rhode Island and New Jersey have a system of paid leave, but it’s unclear how Obama would fund a national system. Obama has not endorsed legislation that would create one funded by a payroll tax, and he pledged in his 2008 presidential campaign not to raise taxes on families making under US$250,000 a year.
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.
When Obama came to the White House, he instituted six weeks of paid leave for his workers when they have a child, get sick or injured or need to care for an ailing family member, using his authority to set his staff’s compensation under the personnel code. He does not have the power to award paid leave to other federal workers without congressional action since they are covered under a different section of law. The White House has supported the goal of legislation introduced by lawmakers to change that, but it has yet to get through Congress.
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