Advocates: Now Is The Time For Paid Family Leave

HARTFORD — It’s shameful that the United States is the only developed country that doesn’t offer paid maternity leave, and Connecticut should remedy that locally, advocates said Wednesday at a press conference at the Capitol.

Three states — New Jersey, California and Rhode Island — have paid family leave, parental leave and disability leave.

“Connecticut is ready to be the fourth,” said Catherine Bailey, co-chairwoman of the Campaign for Paid Family Leave.

A bill that would have created a 12-week paid leave program failed to get a vote in either the Senate or the House last year.

About a dozen legislators attended the press conference, all from the Democratic or Working Families parties.

Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said, “We often in Connecticut get criticized for not being business friendly, and this is clearly a business-friendly piece of legislation. This is not something that will cost businesses money.”

That’s because only workers would pay into the pool that would cover the paid leave. Worker contributions would be in the form of a payroll tax, as with Social Security.

The proposal in Connecticut, which would affect every worker, would be for 12 weeks of full pay, up to a $1,000 cap per week.

Advocates do not know how much workers would need to be taxed to cover the cost of the program.

Employers and employees pay into the fund in New Jersey. In California and Rhode Island, where workers bear the total cost, the tax has ranged between 0.9 percent and 1.2 percent of pay during the past five years. In all three states, the paid leave is only partial pay, between 55 percent and 66 percent of earnings, up to a cap.

In California, after maternity and paternity leave were added to the state’s disability program, the average length of leave that mothers took was six to seven weeks. Before everyone had access to paid leave, only three weeks of leave – paid or unpaid, depending on the company and the worker — had been offered.

Nationally, those who work at bigger companies and those who are college educated are far more likely to have partial or fully paid disability and maternity leave.

The campaign estimated that 50,000 Connecticut workers a year – out of a workforce of 1.1 million — would take leave. That’s about 4.5 percent of workers, mirroring how it has worked in New Jersey, where the vast majority of that group are taking leave for their own illnesses.

If Connecticut passes the program at 100 percent of pay, as is being suggested, maternity leave would be more generous than in Canada, where it’s 15 weeks at 55 percent pay.

Bailey said the Connecticut program shouldn’t be partial pay because “50 percent of minimum wage is not livable. Fifty percent of a lot of jobs is not livable.”

Rep. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, said he thinks the bill will gain more traction this year. “A lot of questions have shifted on whether we should do this to how we should do this,” he said.

Christopher McClure, spokesman for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, asked the administration’s view on a paid leave program, said, “We’re proud of our record, from a first-in-the-nation increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 to delivering first-in-the-nation paid sick days to residents.”

But as to whether Connecticut should institute longer-term paid leave, he said, “Details matter, timing matters, and scope matters. How we get there, and when we get there, is important. A multitude of factors must be closely examined when exploring an issue as important as this one.”

A prominent lobbyist for small businesses called the plan a “preposterous proposal,” in part because it applies family and medical leave to businesses with just two employees. The unpaid federal Family and Medical Leave Act applies only to businesses with 50 or more employees. Andrew Markowski, who represents the National Federation of Independent Business, said the idea is too costly.