Dodd Proposes Paid Leave; Conn. Businesses Skeptical
DODD-FMLA
Norwalk Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
2/1/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 –Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., announced Thursday his intention to write legislation that guarantees paid leave for workers in times of family and medical emergencies.
Arguing that the United States is one of the few countries that have not yet established laws granting paid leave, Dodd said his legislation would provide workers with at least six weeks of time off with pay in a medical or family crisis.
“Families can’t take full advantage of the existing law because the time off is unpaid,” Dodd said. “Seventy percent of families who need family leave can’t take it because of financial reasons.”
Dodd was an original sponsor of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows qualified employees to receive up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. More than 50 million Americans have taken time to care for their families without losing their jobs since then, Dodd said, but he added that the United States still lags behind 163 countries that offer benefits like paid maternity leave.
Dodd said the new legislation is designed to reduce “critical moments” – situations when employees must risk a paid day of work to stay home and take care of a child, a parent or a spouse.
“It is a source of collective shame that the United States is at the very bottom,” Dodd said, referring to a study by researchers at Harvard and McGill universities that listed the United States as one of five out of 168 countries that does not offer women some form of paid maternity leave.
The senator also criticized the United States for not having laws to grant fathers paid paternity leave and for not guaranteeing Americans “a single day of paid sick leave.” Although he would not discuss specific amounts, Dodd said the paid leave program would be funded by employers, employees and the federal government.
According to the 2000 census, married couples with families comprise more than half of the population of Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District. Single women with children under 18 years old comprise just over six percent.
Michael Devine, the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce’s vice president of governmental affairs, said although Dodd’s proposed legislation is a “nice idea,” a paid leave program is something that the business community would most likely have to foot the bill for.
Devine said that guaranteeing paid leave to employees for family and medical emergencies could send businesses “down a slippery slope.” He said that with companies in Connecticut already losing manufacturing jobs to other places in the country and around the world, legislation like this threatens to further decrease businesses’ competitiveness.
“I think that the [financial] onus is going to be on the employer,” Devine said about the legislation’s “shared-cost” design. “It’s difficult enough for an employer in the state of Connecticut.”
Instead of granting paid leave, Devine said, legislation giving employees access to short-term disability plans might allow them to set aside extra money they could rely upon if they ever had to leave work under the existing law.
Dodd said that he hopes to introduce his legislation to Congress in the next couple of weeks with Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the former chairman of the Appropriations Committee, as the bill’s co-sponsor.
Dodd, who has introduced similar legislation in nearly every Congress since the original Family and Medical Leave Act was passed, said that the “exploding elderly population” over the next decade is another reason why the reform should be adopted.
“In most cases, it will not only be parents taking care of their children, but children taking care of their parents,” he said.
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