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California is on its way to hell in a hand basket-and New Jersey just might be next. What, you say? Legalized prostitution? Decriminalizing drugs? Nope. Something even scarier if you listen to the dire warnings coming from opponents.
California has become the first state to provide paid family leave for people who...horrors...take time off from work to care for their newborn children or for sick parents, kids or spouses. Under the new law, most workers can receive about 55 percent of their salary for six weeks of leave for a new child or severely sick relative. The money will come from California's Temporary Disability Insurance Program , supported entirely by employee payroll deductions, that will average about 50 cents a week. The maximum payroll deduction will be $1.35 a week, for someone earning more than $72,000 a year. In return, covered workers can receive up to $728 a week, tax-free.
More than 12 million of California's 16 million workers will be eligible, but the new law covers only workers who pay into the state disability insurance system.
Labor unions, women's and child advocacy associations, senior citizens and religious groups across the country support paid family leave. They know that doing so simply acknowledges the country's changing workforce. With women such a crucial part of the labor force, fewer people are at home to care for newborns, sick family members and elderly parents. The balancing act is personally stressful and hurts productivity.
But still there is strong opposition from the business community to legislating family leave-paid or not. They contend it is yet another mandated perk that will place onerous demands on businesses at a time when they struggle to recover from recession.
New Jersey is one of 28 states where paid leave legislation has been introduced. And it is one of five states that, like California, has a Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) program that replaces a portion of earnings while workers are temporarily unable to work because of pregnancy-related or non work-related personal illnesses. New Jersey's TDI program is a great success, with coverage that costs on average $2.70 a week. Employees and employers both contribute. A woman who takes leave from work for the birth of a child usually receives financial support for a four-week period before the expected delivery date and up to six weeks afterwards.
But the program only covers workers for their own personal illness. If the employee's child, parent or spouse is sick, they are not covered-yet. This would change with passage of legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Arline Friscia and State Senator Joseph Coniglio. It would require employers to provide paid family leave to employees with just the kinds of circumstances TDI currently doesn't cover. This legislation would extend the time a mother could spend with her newborn and would allow covered family members to care for a sick relative with fewer financial worries.
The grinches, meanwhile, see only the downside. More than 40 business groups including the Society of Certified Public Accountants, state Chamber of Commerce, New Jersey Business and Industry Association and Association of Women Business Owners are fighting hard against paid family leave. They say it will especially hurt small businesses, and claim to oppose any diversion of unemployment and disability funds for a purpose other than unemployment and disability.
Family leave is a government mandate that removes choices, they argue. They couldn't be more wrong, as California Gov. Gray Davis noted upon signing the family leave law.
"Californians should never have to make the choice between being good workers and being good parents," he proclaimed. "This bill will help millions of California workers meet their responsibilities to both their families and their employers. It sends a message around the world that California is pro-worker, pro-employer and pro-family."
Studies show that three out of four workers who today need to take a leave to care for a severely ill family member choose not to because they cannot afford to go without a paycheck. We can easily avoid this needless predicament for workers in New Jersey by following California's example and extending our temporary disability insurance program to cover family health crises.
Providing paid family leave will help workers balance their responsibilities to their employers and their families. It will help reduce employee turnover and improve worker morale. It will even help small businesses to offer a benefit that some of their larger competitors already offer, thereby leveling the employer playing field.
New Jersey can't be first to offer this benefit; California already did it. But let's be second. It's the right thing to do, and we can lead the rest of the states in the right direction in support of families.
Mary E. Forsberg is author of "Perspective on Family Leave" and Senior Policy Analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that conducts research on state issues
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