Gov. Gregoire signing the Family and Medical Leave Insurance bill in 2007
Family and Medical Leave Insurance – In the last days of the regular session, the Senate passed SB 5903, which would repeal family and medical leave insurance if it is not funded by 2015. The bill would set up a taskforce to make recommendations for funding – but we don’t need another taskforce – we already had one in 2007. The Washington Work and Family Coalition has already put forward a strong funding solution (HB 1457/SB 5292).
The current FMLI system is slated to begin providing benefits in the 2015-17 biennium, which would allow parents to spend a few weeks nurturing their newborn or newly adopted child without falling into poverty. The state is not obligated to spend any money in the 2013-15 biennium.
House Bill 2044 removes the implementation date for family leave insurance in order to meet 4-year balanced budget provisions, but leaves the program on the books. If “compromise” is necessary, we prefer the House’s approach to the Senate’s.
Paid Sick Days – In 2011, the Seattle City Council acted to protect the health of people living, working, and patronizing businesses in Seattle by passing minimum standards for paid sick and safe leave. This year the Senate passed Senate Bill 5726, prohibiting local paid sick leave laws from applying to companies based outside the city, or to employees who sometimes work in other locations. SB 5726 would exempt all companies that base their offices outside of Seattle, even if they have people working 100% of the time in Seattle – including providing home care to vulnerable seniors, making repairs and installations in people’s homes, or delivering food to restaurants and stores.
Tell legislators and the Governor: Reject the Senate approach on both Family and Medical Leave Insurance and Paid Sick Days. Rolling back protections will in no way improve the state budget outlook. In fact, guaranteeing that working Washingtonians can take the time they need to recover from illness, seek preventative care, nurture newborns, and care for aging family members will save the state money by promoting health, improving children’s school outcomes, boosting business productivity, and building our state’s economy.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer PHOTO: Pascal Lauener / Reuters
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who sparked an uproar and hurt her image as a working mom when she banned telecommuting two months ago, is now offering employees generous new family leave benefits.
Under the new policy, mothers can take 16 weeks of paid leave with benefits, and fathers can take up to eight weeks, each time they have a new child via childbirth. Both parents receive eight weeks off for new children via adoption, foster child placement or surrogacy.
This change is a significant increase for Yahoo employees, particularly mothers, who will basically get twice as much paid time off. Under the old policy, moms received eight week paid after pregnancy, or 10 weeks if they had a C-section.
Yahoo will also give new parents $500 to spend on such things as house cleaning, groceries and babysitters, plus Yahoo-branded baby gifts.
Mayer’s decision, which brings the Sunnyvale-based Yahoo closer to Silicon Valley titans Google and Facebook, could help repair the damage as she works to turn around the struggling media giant.
But it doesn’t only make sense from a public relations standpoint, observers said. The new policy could fit into a broader corporate strategy to attract and retain more talent and ultimately improve Yahoo’s financial performance.
“It’s a smart move,” said Rachel Sklar, a New York-based blogger and founder of The Li.st, an organization dedicated to elevate the status of women in New Media and technology. “It suggests a long-term strategy. This is a great precedent.”
Companies who provide “everything” to their employees, such as free lunch and daycare sites at Google, do better financially in the long run because there is nothing to “distract” their workers from working, Sklar said.
“The temptation will be to see this through a gender lens – -that of course she did it because she’s a new-mom CEO,” Sklar said. “And this certainly would suggest she has a heightened awareness as a working mom, but this will encourage new parents to be engaged with the company and have a financial piece of mind. When companies nickel-and-dime their employees, it just adds to their burden.”
From the moment she became Yahoo’s new chief executive last year, Mayer, 37, has been seen as a symbol of corporate gender politics. She took the job when she was five months pregnant and worked through a two-week maternity leave that ended in October.
Her decision to return to work so quickly attracted both praise and criticism – praise for showing that a new mother could continue to steer a Fortune 500 company, and criticism for failing to set a realistic expectations for America’s working moms.
Mayer drew praise for adding perks such as new iPhones and free food, cutting company bureaucracy and redesigning work spaces. Many of those amenities were standard at her prior employer, Google.
In February, Mayer sparked another debate when she decided to end Yahoo’s lenient telecommuting policy. Employees with existing work-from-home arrangements were told they had to start coming into the office or look for another job.
The move reflected Mayer’s an all-hands-on-deck approach to turning around Yahoo and make it more competitive. But she was again accused of making it harder on working parents.
But her decision to double family leave for new parents from 8 weeks to 16 weeks puts Yahoo in the same ballpark as her Silicon Valley rivals: Google gives between 18 and 22 weeks off to new mothers, and Facebook told the New York Times that it gives new mothers and fathers four months of paid leave.
A Google spokeswoman said that all the Mountain View-company perks – which include preferred parking for expectant mothers and $500 in “baby bucks” to spend on things such as takeout dinners, like Yahoo is now offering – are so that life can be as smooth as possible for new parents. That’s of course, the spokeswoman noted, so that they can come back to work fully rested.
In California, workers are eligible for six weeks of partial pay through the state’s disability benefits program.
Mayer’s move also comes amid a broader debate in America about the country’s commitment to family leave. The United States, which hasn’t updated its Family and Medical Leave Act in 20 years, ranks among the worst of all developed countries. Sweden, Denmark Russian mothers get at least a year off paid and Canadian mothers get 50 weeks off paid.
The U.S. law requires large companies to provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave to employers who need to care for a newborn child or an ill relative. And that relatively stingy benefit covers only workers who have been at a company for at least a year. That leaves millions without access to the benefit. Many more cut their absences short because they can’t afford unpaid leave.
Mark testified in favor of Family and Medical Leave this year, speaking about how it would have helped his family when his daughter was born with serious health complications PHOTO: John Stang
It’s been a bad week for working families in the Washington State Legislature, as Monday the WA State Senate voted to potentially repeal our Paid Family and Medical Leave system.
Please contact your legislators in the WA State House (1-800-562-6000) and tell them one more time:
Don’t accept the Senate plan to repeal Family and Medical Leave Insurance! Washington’s working families and small businesses need expansion of paid leave protections, not rollbacks.
On Monday, the Senate passed SB 5903 by a vote of 27 to 21 (see how your Senator voted here). It would repeal the Family and Medical Leave Insurance if the legislature does not approve funding by 2015. The bill would create a taskforce of eight legislators with the assignment of recommending a funding mechanism.
What’s wrong with a taskforce? Some taskforces do good work, but this one is merely a smoke screen that will allow legislators to repeal family leave insurance without looking like they are taking an anti-family vote. Besides, we don’t need another task force! We already had one in 2007. Another will be a costly waste of time, and result in repeal of paid family leave.
The Senate repeal bill now goes to the House. Please take 5 minutes today to urge your Representatives to to do the right thing.
Action for today: Call the legislative hotline 1-800-562-6000. Tell your legislators in the House of Representatives:
Please support Washington working families and vote NO on SB 5903.
Do not support any measure that will repeal Washington’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance program.
Washington’s working families and small businesses need expansion of paid leave protections, not rollbacks.
Washington Work and Family Coalition 