On May 10, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing, “Beyond Mother’s Day: Helping the Middle Class Balance Work and Family.”
“With few adults left at home to attend to unexpected family caregiving needs combined with increasing health and educational needs of children and an increasing need to care for aging relatives, workers need greater flexibility to combine their responsibilities at home and at work,” said Ann O’Leary, director, Children and Families Program, The Center for the Next Generation. She continued, “Yet the United States has no laws requiring that employers provide paid sick days or provide workers with a right to receive or even request flexible work hours…Only half of the American workforce has the right to take unpaid family and medical leave with a guarantee that they won’t be fired for doing so. While the policy of unpaid job-protected family and medical leave, guaranteed to eligible workers through the Family and Medical Leave Act, is most likely to benefit middle-income workers, the hit to their family income can still be quite dramatic and can discourage the primary breadwinner (often the man) from taking time off upon the arrival of a newborn or to care for a sick child because the family simply cannot afford it.” In discussing the risks to families, Ms. O’Leary added, “The primary risk to families when work and care clash is the loss of steady income workers experience when they lose their job or cut back their hours to address the family caregiving needs. Many workers are unable to replace earned income with employer-provided paid leave, government assistance, or family savings. An additional financial burden families face is the high cost of providing care while family members work – for example, a spot at a child care center or a paid caregiver to assist with an ailing parent. Middle income families face unique difficulties because they are often without government aid, without employer policies to support them, and without enough family income to afford high quality child care or family care for an ailing relative.”
Speaking on behalf of the National Partnership for Women and Families, Senior Advisor Judith Lichtman addressed several arguments against federally mandated paid leave policies: “Public policies are critically important in setting our nation’s course. Minimum wage and overtime laws, laws regulating working conditions and other standards that we now take for granted helped build our middle class. In the 21st century, national standards that build on the success of the FMLA [Family and Medical Leave Act (P.L. 103-3)] are needed to help working fathers in Iowa, adult daughters caring for elderly parents in Wyoming and workers in every other corner of this nation maintain their short-term financial stability and protect their long-term economic security when illness strikes or medical needs arise…A second false and harmful assumption is that expanding work-family policies harms businesses. In fact, these policies benefit business. Research confirms what working families and responsible employers already know: When businesses take care of their workers, they are better able to retain them, and when workers have the security of paid time off and flexibility, their commitment, productivity and morale increases and employers reap the benefits of lower turnover and training costs and higher retention rates.” Ms. Lichtman continued, saying “A third, related misconception is that expanded leave policies are too costly for taxpayers. In reality, these policies provide cost-savings to governments as well as to businesses…both women and men who take paid leave after a child’s birth are significantly less likely to rely on public assistance or food stamps in the following year. And women who take paid leave are more likely to be working nine to 12 months after a child’s birth and to have higher earnings. A final false assumption is that work-family policies are of concern to women only. However, with more and more women in the workforce, men are also increasingly managing responsibilities at home as well as in the workplace and seeking better ways to balance work and family responsibilities.”
Juanita Phillips, director of Human Resources, Intuitive Research and Technology Corporation, testified on behalf of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), saying, “Being a small company of 243 employees, Intuitive is able to be creative in providing employee benefits and programs. These practices have helped us achieve a 92 percent retention rate and have earned us recognition by several organizations…Having the ability to design our workplace policies and practices in ways that support our mission and values, and that develop and fulfill our employees, is critical to us. Organizations like ours want to be able to continue to manage our workplace in ways that work for our company culture and help us meet our business objectives. It is of utmost importance to us to inspire and engage our employees.” Ms. Phillips detailed some of Intuitive’s employee programs: “One of the key components for helping employees meet their work and life obligations is being able to offer flexible work hours. Because we serve many customers that have differing approaches to work hours, we are generally able to match up candidates and employees with the type of flexibility they need. This can sometimes even be done on a temporary basis, when an employee has such a need. We have full-time and part-time positions, and a ‘provisional’ category. This is a category for those who don’t fit the other two – such as those who work full-time for periods of time and then part-time for periods of time; those who work on a couple of projects per year and don’t work in between; those whose hours are sporadic; and our co-ops, interns, and student hires. Our full-time exempt employees work 80 non-prescribed hours during the two-week pay period, providing them with flexibility for appointments, school activities, and other events. We also have employees who have compressed work weeks, some who telecommute, and we also offer job sharing and phased retirement. Employees can better meet their work and life needs when flexible options are available…Intuitive offers employees paid time off (PTO) leave, which is a combination of vacation and sick leave. The amount of PTO we offer to our employees is above the average in our area, per Chamber of Commerce sponsored wage and benefit surveys. New employees receive 15 PTO days per year, accrued per pay period and available for use immediately, and employees reach 20 days of PTO at three years of service. The PTO approach to providing leave is consistent with treating employees as adults; they manage their time-off accruals however they wish without keeping track of multiple banks of leave or needing excuses to satisfy requirements for certain types of leave. Additionally, there are no issues over whether sick leave covers caring for a child or a relative, or the employee’s own illness. PTO can be used for any reason and no documentation is required by the employee. Along with our monetary bonus programs, we also have the option of giving employees additional PTO, especially those employees with circumstances where they may appreciate additional PTO days more than money. Overall, providing our employees PTO leave instead of separate vacation and sick leave contributes positively to our professional environment.” Ms. Phillips added, “We see employees who are also caregivers becoming more common. Some of our employees are not only taking care of children, but are also taking care of elderly loved ones. We are proud to have an elder care benefit that provides each employee with a free, annual, 45-minute consultation with experts in the field of elder care, and provides discounts on further services. This benefit also includes four ‘Lunch ‘n Learn’ seminars annually on various elder care topics, which a spouse or family member may also attend. A Lunch ‘n Learn session is also provided for managers on the topic of supervising caregivers. The information shared is excellent, the resources are much appreciated, and it is a program that further assists employees with meeting their personal and work needs.”
Kimberly Ortiz of New York also testified.
