Month: June 2016

It’s almost guaranteed that a Montana worker will have to step away from the job to care for an aging parent or give birth to a child. Many employees will fall seriously ill and need time to recover.

Under all three scenarios, most Montana workers will have to do so without pay.

On Wednesday, the Equal Pay for Equal Work Task Force gathered in Missoula to examine the results of a two-year study conducted by the Montana Budget and Policy Center.

The report, “Helping People Balance Work and Family,” found that a paid leave program would enable roughly 445,000 working Montanans to take time off after the birth of a child, care for a seriously ill family member or recover from serious illness, and do so with pay.

After hours of public comment, motions to amend, and heavyhearted discussion… city council passed the paid sick leave ordinance 6-1.

Businesses in the city of Spokane are now required to have a police that for every 30 hours worked an employee will earn an hour of sick leave, but can only use 3 days off a year.

The Missoula County Board of Commissioners this week adopted a parental leave policy that gives county employees six weeks of paid time off after the birth or adoption of a new child.

The policy applies to both mothers and fathers who work for the county.

All workers in New York state will soon be eligible for a guaranteed 12 weeks of paid family leave, one of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s legislative priorities, which passed Thursday in a long-debated budget agreement.

Beginning in 2018, all full- and part-time employees who’ve been working at their jobs for at least six months will have access to up to eight weeks of leave at half their salaries. The policy, which will be funded by employees through payroll deductions, will gradually phase up over four years to 12 weeks and a maximum of two-thirds of the state’s average wage. It also guarantees job protection for all workers who take leave, even those who work for businesses with fewer than 50 employees, which are not subject to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

At first blush, the drop in workforce participation rates seem to have similarly impacted men and women.  The employment rate for American females in their prime working years, 25-54, has dropped from 74.9% in April, 2000 to 70.8% in April 2016.  For similarly aged men, participation rates dropped from 89% to 84.9% during the same time period.

Yet relative to their peers globally, American women may have prematurely plateaued in their labor force participation rates. In 1990, United States had the sixth highest female work-force participation rate of 24 OECD economies. By 2014, it had dropped to 22nd. When economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn examined the decline in women’s labor force participation in the U.S. relative to other OECD countries, they found that the lack of “family friendly” policies, such as parental leave, accounted for approximately 28% of the relative decline.

Another study found that up to half of the earnings gap that mothers experience can be made up for by childcare and parental leave policies.

In what council members called a historic moment, Minneapolis on Friday became the first Midwestern city to mandate that nearly all private businesses provide paid sick leave.

The unanimous council vote followed months of heated debate, packed public meetings and last-minute policy revisions, and may set a precedent for other Minnesota cities that are exploring the issue, including St. Paul and Duluth. Across the country, 23 cities, five states and one county have passed sick-leave laws.

Starting July 1, 2017, workers at Minneapolis businesses with six or more employees will be able to earn up to 48 hours of paid sick leave per year, at a rate of one hour of leave per 30 hours worked. Smaller businesses will need to provide the same amount of unpaid leave. With few exceptions, any private employee working at least 80 hours in Minneapolis in a year — whether or not their company is based in the city — will be entitled to the benefit.

Time off from work to care for a child or relative is codified in federal law. Now, an overwhelming majority of Americans 40 and older want that time away from the job to be paid.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released May 20 said 72 percent support paid family leave. Democrats were more likely to back it, but Republicans also expressed strong support. Overall, support was stronger among people age 40-64 and among women.