The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2009 provides four weeks of paid parental leave to federal employees for the birth or adoption of a child. Additionally, the legislation permits employees to substitute accrued annual or sick leave for unpaid parental leave. Current law allows 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave. Finally, the bill authorizes the Office of Personnel Management to extend the paid parental leave period to 8 weeks.
The Middle-Class Position:
The birth or adoption of a child is a life-changing event, yet many current and aspiring middle-class families cannot afford to take time off to welcome and bond with their new child. While the Family and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993, guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid leave to many employees for a personal or family illness or a new child, there is currently no federal requirement that employers offer paid leave. This legislation would answer that need in part by providing paid sick leave to all employees of the federal government, the nation’s largest employer. The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act will ensure that no federal employee will have to choose between caring for a newborn and receiving a needed paycheck. The bill is widely seen as a first step toward guaranteeing paid leave to private sector United States employees, a critical measure to stabilize middle-class families.
From the Experts:
“The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2009 (FEPPLA) will improve the family/work balance of the over 2.7 million federal employees by providing for some paid parental leave. Not only will this legislation allow new mothers to take paid leave, without using a cobbled together combination of paid vacation time and sick days, it will also encourage new fathers to spend time with their new children – an approach that, much like the Family and Medical Leave Act, helps combat gender discrimination and insidious stereotypes about gender roles. In addition, FEPPLA will help the federal government gain and retain valuable employees.” – Lisa Maatz, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations, American Association of University Women, February 12, 2009
“The writing is on the wall: Working families need paid time off when they have a child. The federal government can provide paid parental leave with a relatively small investment, and in doing so it shores up family budgets and ensures continued spending by federal employees. In the short term, a lack of paid parental leave means that family income takes a harsh blow when a new child arrives and new parents must cut back on goods and services in the private-sector economy…In the longer term, family incomes and the broader economy suffer because women who do not have access to paid maternity leave earn less over time. Men and children suffer, too, because men are generally the higher-wage earners and therefore take unpaid leave less frequently. Lack of paid parental leave deprives men of the benefit of bonding with and caring for their new infant.” – Ann O’Leary, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Health, Economic, and Family Security, June 4, 2009
Beyond this Bill:
The United States lags behind many other countries in its provision of time off for illness and to care for newborns and ill relatives. The United States is one of only five countries in the world that does not offer any paid leave for new mothers, while most other countries mandate that employers provide paid time off for illness. While some states, like New Jersey, have enacted paid family leave legislation that allows paid time off to care for newborns and sick relatives and other localities, like San Francisco, have enacted paid sick leave legislation, federal law should guarantee that all workers have access to these valuable benefits. Such benefits help attract and retain workers, improve children’s health, increase the likelihood of long-term employment, and make the entire workforce more productive by preventing illnesses from worsening and spreading.
Number of countries, out of 173 studied, that offer guaranteed leave with income to women in connection with childbirth: 168
Number of these countries that offer 14 or more weeks of such leave: 98
Number of weeks of paid leave that employers in the United States must provide to women in connection with childbirth: 0
Percentage of the 100 best employers for working mothers that provide six weeks or less of paid maternity leave, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research: 52
Percentage of private sector workers in the United States with any type of paid personal leave: 37
Number of countries that provide paid sick days for short- or long-term illness, which the United States does not require: 145
Search our analyses of legislation
significant to America’s current and
aspiring middle class, and find out
how members of Congress voted on
those bills.
