San Francisco has it, California has it, Europe has had it for years (16 weeks at 70 percent of full pay in France, for example), but Massachusetts is grotesquely deficient in this important indicator for economic competitiveness and the ability to attract employers and employees. NYT:
San Francisco on Tuesday became the first city in the United States to approve six weeks of fully paid leave for new parents — mothers and fathers, including same-sex couples, who either bear or adopt a child.
California is already one of only a few states that offer paid parental leave, with workers receiving 55 percent of their pay for six weeks, paid for by employee-financed public disability insurance. The new law in San Francisco, passed unanimously by the city’s Board of Supervisors, mandates full pay, with the 45 percent difference being paid by employers.
Wikipedia lays out policies around the world, in an extremely informative article.
The sooner, the better for the common wealth.
Great news that Mayor Marty Walsh supports raising the minimum wage to $15 – we need more leaders in MA to step up on these important issues.
Interesting that the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is calling for the US to increase the federal minimum wage and enact more “family-friendly” policies to boost the economy. You don’t hear that from national Republican leaders, but these types of policies are good for the economy and good for working families.
New York and California are leading the way on these critical economic issues. We have a strong Democratic majority in the Legislature – there’s no reason why MA can’t join them and be a leader again.
We were the first state to enact child labor laws. We were the first state to pass a health care reform law the aim of providing health insurance to nearly all of its residents.
We led the nation in marriage equality.
And for reasons unknown, at least to me, we’ve lost our will to be bold and make positive changes.
Massachusetts has a proud tradition of LEADING on progressive economic and social justice issues.
But now we are in the shameful position of having to play catch up to California and New York on the $15 minimum wage and paid parental leave ?
Wake up people, and let your voices be heard !
Fred Rich LaRiccia
Our median age rose another 3 years in the last census as the state gets older and older, since younger people are leaving to make lives in less expensive states with better employment prospects. If you factored out our perenial temporary college population, we’d more closely resemble Maine which had a jump in median age of 5 years. So it will affect fewer and fewer people.
We can couple that with the $15/hr minimum wage but only for fast food franchises, since REAL businesses are already testifying that they can’t afford that. They can rely on a waiver process, like they do for other things. And MAYBE GE makes the robotic ordering kiosks that they fast food workers will be replaced with!
It will just hasten our transition to being an elderly Disneyland, all benefits, all the time.
Making Massachusetts more livable for people starting a family will keep young people in-state.
If you factored out people living in nursing homes, the median age would fall. Doing so would be equally silly though. The young people who live in our state while attending college are every bit as important to our culture and our community as the rest of us Massholes.
…that all able bodied adults need to be under the employment of a company, organization, corporation, et cetera for a minimum of forty hours, fifty weeks a year?
There is a sort of hostility against the “stay at home parent” that I find deeply troubling. On a related issue, I’m 61 and now working part time. Last night at a Democratic event, a fellow Democrat asked me how I was doing on finding full time employment. When I told him I was fine with part-time, he looked at me as if had my pants on backwards. There was something wrong with me for not being embarrassed about not “working full time”.
I understand that businesses with fewer employees tend to have smaller revenues. But, with fewer employees, they’ll pay out on the parental leave less frequently.
Rather than exempt based on number of employees, why not exempt based on salary? That is, why not something like: 6 weeks paid parental leave, where you get paid the minimum of your base salary or $30/hr? If you’re on the lower half of the income spectrum, you need every last dollar during those six weeks. If you’re making more, you need cash flow but you’re less likely to be living paycheck to paycheck.
Just thinking with my fingers here — this is a brainstorm, not a policy proposal…