Guest column: Why paid leave matters for Montanans

Friday, February 5th 2021
Missoulian

The U.S. is unique among industrialized democracies in the way it treats working women. Unlike other industrialized nations, the United States fails to guarantee paid leave via a permanent or universal federal law. Our current system resembles a patchwork of policies developed by employers and state and local governments, or negotiated as a part of labor contracts.

In addition, COVID-19 continues to impact women in the workforce. Last month brought a breathtaking headline: women accounted for 100% of the jobs lost in December. At first glance, this appears to present a stunning collapse in women’s employment from the previous year — the December 2019 Bureau of Labor Statistics job report showed that women held more jobs than men by a slim margin. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of Americans’ livelihoods, working women are disproportionately affected.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Feb. 5 marks the 28th anniversary of the Family Medical and Leave Act (FMLA), our nation’s unpaid leave law. If the COVID-19 crisis has taught us anything it is the inadequacy of FMLA, which has left most Americans, and many Montanans, behind, forcing them to choose between their family and their job.

FMLA provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year for medical events like childbirth or caring for a seriously ill spouse, minor child or parent. Restrictions in FMLA, including the definition of family and exemptions for small business and part-time employees, means the law fails to cover at least 40% of the U.S. workforce. In Montana, an estimated 13,000 parents could benefit from paid parental leave each year, retaining nearly $45 million in wages lost due to unpaid leave.
We have yet to fully realize how the numbers for 2020 stack up: but we know that we are faced with a dual crisis — workers facing the loss of real wages due to unpaid family leave and the exodus of women from the workforce in order to meet family care obligations. Breathtaking as December’s job loss headline was, we have come to understand it as illuminating the fact that women and their families are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 fallout. Simply, the lack of adequate polices that support working women means our communities and our economy pay the price.

In the absence of an adequate federal paid leave law, the Treasure State can step up and protect Montana families. We suggest Montana join other states like California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, and Colorado in the laboratory of democracy and leverage this anniversary of the FMLA to pass legislation to provide paid leave to working families.

The benefits of a paid leave law in Montana would:
  • Make it easier for working parents to care for their children or parents without the loss of income;
  • Ensure women return to work after having a child;
  • Reduce the gender gap in wages; and
  • Retain and recruit employees for public and private organizations across our state.

We suggest the passage of legislation like House Bill 228 so Montana can lead the nation in providing solutions to our paid leave problem. Enacting a paid leave policy will not only help businesses and families recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic downturn, it will also provide a Montana model for others to follow.

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