Polling continues to show many Americans don't see the need for the federal government to get involved in affordable child care — or, for that matter, for women to work. Nearly half of all Americans still believe kids are best off if one parent stays home with them , preferably the mother. Many say they don't want to pay for child care for other people's kids. Some say federal policies for working parents instead would penalize parents who choose not to work.
Those attitudes contribute to inertia in Congress, insiders say. When Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and policy adviser, got to Washington to push for paid leave and affordable child care, she found conservatives in Congress were nowhere near ready to sign on. Meetings and policy debates in Washington have indeed picked up. More stakeholders are joining the conversation. Insiders on Capitol Hill say the political heat around child care and parental leave is hotter than ever.
Yet a solution remains out of reach: Federal proposals for what action to take and how to pay for it diverge wildly.
Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic front-runner for the nomination, who is pushing for universal child care as part of her candidacy. It's mattered for a long time now. And people are pushing harder and harder for change. Before having her own kids, Whitney Phinney acknowledges she thought of paid leave and subsidized child care as "handouts. When Whitney had Brennan, she had no paid leave.
Tim had one week of paid leave and one week of paid vacation he saved up for the birth. So Whitney was off, without a salary — a financial hardship for the family. And Tim had to keep working to pay the bills, so he wasn't there to support her emotionally, or take time to care for himself. It's not that all workplaces are against expanding paid leave. More employers are recognizing it's good for business: It helps them hold on to highly trained workers.
But some businesses balk at the idea of federal paid leave. They don't want to be told to pay for a certain policy themselves.
Some don't want to share the cost via paying a tax, either. And if they do offer paid leave, they want to decide who gets it and how much. Congress could pass paid leave without the business community's stamp of approval, but "it'll help," said Sen.
Some big corporations support a federal policy. But the ones that have offered headline-capturing paid leave and child care assistance aren't necessarily doing it to pressure Congress for a federal mandate.
In fact, a majority of Americans back this approach: They say paid leave, required by a federal mandate or not, should be paid for by employers, not the government, according to the Pew Research Center. As companies add the benefit, some experts say pressure increases on Congress to finally ensure all workers can access paid leave. Many companies skeptical of a federal mandate understand offering paid leave is the right thing to do, said Rose Arriada-Keiper, vice president of global rewards for Adobe.
The problem, she said, is how to keep a business running while key employees are out for months. Even at Adobe — where parents get 16 weeks of paid leave after a new child arrives, plus an additional 10 weeks for women who give birth, and where top leaders support the FAMILY Act — paid leave has been frustrating for some managers. Leave can be taken up until a child turns 8 years old, and parent can accumulate leave from several children.
Parents also have an additional legal right to decrease their daily work hours by up to 25 percent until their child reaches 8 years old. Parents who choose this option are only paid for the hours they work, but they are still employed and their jobs are secure.
According to the World Bank Group's Women, Business, and the Law report, only 90 out of countries 48 percent provide any paid paternity leave that new fathers can take as a matter of national policy. While many private companies are offering paid paternity leave as an optional benefit, several organizations and celebrity fathers are calling for inclusive paid family leave.
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All female employees with permanent contracts are entitled to take leave — in fact it is obligatory to take six weeks before the birth and 12 weeks after. However, as a result of gender pay gaps, women on an average female salary receive considerably less in parental leave than men. Unicef reports that high breastfeeding rates and pay discrepancies mean women tend to take longer time off.
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