Did you miss this? Take a few minutes to revel in last’s night’s “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”, in which J.O. gloriously skewers U.S. paid leave policies, mocks anti-family leave legislators and creates an unbelievably wonderful, side-splitting, tear-inducing piece.
Terri did everything right. She and her husband raised three great children – now mostly grown. She was a loyal employee for 14 years and prepared for the future, buying into the short term disability plan her company offered and investing in a 401(k). She even decided it was time to get healthy and lost 30 lbs.
When her cancer diagnosis came, she had family support, a financial cushion, and the legal protection of the FMLA. But none of that proved quite enough to last through two years of treatment and three surgeries. Despite her years of hard work and responsible actions, one bout of seriously bad luck has left Terri worried about her family’s future.
In September 2013, after speaking with some co-workers, Terri became suspicious of symptoms she’d been having. She visited the doctor and after two biopsies learned she had cancer in both breasts. In October, Terri had a lumpectomy and eventually a double mastectomy. In total, Terri has needed to take 3 separate medical leaves from work to deal with her cancer
“It was the worst experience of my life” said Terri.
Terri has worked for a major retailer in Tacoma for 14 years. She felt lucky to have her job protected through the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act which covers employees in companies with 50 or more employees, who have worked with the same employer at least a year and for enough hours. She had also purchased short term disability insurance. This meant she would have some income to keep her family afloat while she recovered from surgery and have a job to go back to after the ordeal.
But disability insurance did not fully cover her wages—and it left her particularly short when she had to go back for a 2nd surgery. Coordinating all the paperwork with her medical team, HR department, and the separate disability plan provider also proved complicated. It never seemed like they were on her side.
“It was such a hassle that I didn’t need. I kept getting certified letters from the HR department saying they had not received the doctor’s letters… I’m the face of their company, I don’t call in sick unless I have a legitimate reason. I should be rewarded for being a decent employee.”
To add more stress, her health insurance did not fully cover medical expenses and bills began to pile up. With limited options, Terri decided to tap into her 401K. Despite spending most of her retirement savings, she still has unpaid medical bills that keep her and her family underwater. Even her strong family started feeling shaky. “Money problems are hard on a marriage” Terri says.
If Washington had enacted and funded family and medical leave insurance (HB 1273),Terri would have had stable income throughout her cancer treatments – without nearly exhausting her retirement account. Her husband could have taken leave to help care for her. She would have had less stress, meaning faster healing, better morale when she returned to work, and less strain on her family.
Terri’s story could be anyone’s experience. That’s why we all need family and medical leave insurance.
![April 14 is Equal Pay Day, the day in 2015 the typical woman working fulltime in the U.S. catches up to what her male counterpart made in 2014. [Image: American Association of University Women]](http://www.eoionline.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/epd_aauw_graphic.png)
Congress banned pay discrimination in this country over 50 years ago, but at the current rate of progress it will take until 2058 before white women gain pay equity, according to a recent analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. For women of color, it will take even longer.
Because women are still denied equal pay for equal work – and often equal work in the first place – families struggle to pay bills, local businesses have fewer customers, and children face a lifetime of obstacles rather than opportunities. The economic structures we now have in place systematically place a lower value on “women’s work.”
We don’t have to sit by and wait it out. We can change some of those economic structures. The Women’s Economic Agenda of the Washington Work and Family Coalition will help women catch up much more quickly. The Equal Pay Opportunity Act, Paid Sick and Safe Leave, and the FAMLI Act will require employers to change many of the practices that hide discrimination and keep women at a disadvantage.
Sometimes women are paid less for exactly the same job as a man – but don’t know it because so many companies impose pay secrecy policies. Even in establishments with open pay policies, company practices and manager assumptions can result in men being assigned to higher paying departments and promoted more quickly. Is there any other way to explain the fact that male nurses make more than female nurses, even controlling for education, experience, and hours worked? Or that in grocery stores highly paid meat cutters are mostly men, while lower paid deli workers are primarily women?
Washington’s Equal Pay Opportunity Act addresses both these problems by assuring employee free speech about compensation, and establishing that both differences in pay and differences in career opportunities need to be based on job-related factors, not on assumptions about gender.
Access to paid leave is also particularly a women’s issue. Mothers are far more likely to have to stay home with a sick child than fathers. Women provide more elder care as well, and of course only women get pregnant, give birth, and breastfeed.
But 4 in 10 U.S. workers don’t get a single day of paid sick leave – except in the now more than 20 cities and states with sick leave laws in place. Only 12% get paid family leave – except in California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island where all workers earn that benefit (and women in New York and Hawaii have the right to paid maternity disability leave).
When all workers are able to earn paid sick leave and paid family leave, women and their families will have more stable incomes, be better able to save for education or retirement, and stay in jobs longer. Businesses will have healthier, more productive workers with less costly turnover. All babies will gain the lifelong advantages that come from intense early nurture and care. Children will be healthier and do better in school. The state will spend less on public assistance, remedial education, and senior care – and gain more tax revenue from additional money circulating through the economy. Our communities will be stronger.
Unfortunate, none of these bills will pass the Washington legislature this year. The House passed paid Sick and Safe Leave and the Equal Pay Opportunity Act, but both died quickly in the Senate. The FAMLI Act didn’t even make it out of the House.
So one good way to commemorate Equal Pay Day would be to contact your state legislators and tell them you want them to prioritize all three bills for passage in 2016. Our daughters and granddaughters, sisters and nieces, all deserve better than another five decades of inequality.
[Cross-posted from the Economic Opportunity Institute]
Washington Work and Family Coalition