Testimony by Marcia A. Pappas, President, NOW - New York State
Public Hearing, June 5, 2007
Subject: Paid Family Leave; Working Families Time to Care Act Legislation Must be Passed
What countries spring to mind when you think of the United States' peers on the global stage? Perhaps nations on the U.N. Security Council - other major powers like Russia or China. Or maybe you think of our economic might and group the U.S. together with G-8 leaders like France and Great Britain, Germany and Japan
But we're a part of one group that's not nearly so august. The U.S. joins only three other countries in the world in that we do not have a national policy allowing parents to take paid time off to care for newborn children. Those countries? Swaziland, Liberia and Papua New Guinea.
Think honestly for a moment. It's a safe bet that every reader of this column knows at least one working mother who had a newborn and had to return to work far more quickly than she would have liked due to the ever-increasing economic pressures under which we all live today. Someone like Janice T., a retail worker from a two-income family in Schenectady, who used up her vacation and sick time and then had to go back to work within a few weeks or risk losing her job. Now she works only part-time in order to care for her son David the rest of the day, with her husband picking up overtime wherever he can to bring in some extra dollars to help pay for childcare.
This story should ring true, because it's all too common. It's no magic bullet - the balance between work and family is so out of whack in this country that no single reform could address all of the challenges that most working people face when they're ready to start families - but it is a moderate reform that would provide real peace of mind to new parents. By giving working families a limited benefit and a few months of guaranteed time off to care for their newborns, new mothers or fathers would have the opportunity to stay at home with their babies for a little while longer, without risking economic hardship.
Our current system forces upon far too many parents an unfortunate choice between their work and their family responsibilities. In an age where a one-income family is a luxury few can afford, changes in family circumstances - whether it's the birth of a new child or the serious illness of an older relative - put a greater stress on the economic security of families than ever before.
This isn't the 1950's anymore. We need new solutions based on our core principles to address our changing times.
If we believe in a society where working families take care of each other, one in which new parents have the ability to take care of their children, then we should pass the Working Families Time to Care Act. If we believe in a society where working people have responsibilities both to their employers and to their families, and that a balance between those two responsibilities is critical to building a healthy community for all of us, then we should pass this bill. And if we support Social Security, an insurance program that honors a lifetime of work by keeping our seniors out of poverty, then we should pass legislation that supports working people who are trying to do right by both their jobs and their families today. State legislators: are you listening?
