Paid Leave Pros And Cons

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Paid Leave: The Importance and Economic Benefits within the United States Questions involving mandating paid leave within the United States have become more popular as an escalating amount of developed countries around the world require it. In an article written by Nita Ghei, negative aspects of paid parental leave were speciously indicated. However, recent studies have shown that paid leave is not only beneficial to families but also to the economy. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 allows employees protected unpaid leave to address serious health conditions, such as pregnancy, to care for a newborn, and a newly adopted child or newly-placed foster child (“Paid Leave” 2). Yet paid leave is not required under federal law in the United …show more content…
It is often assumed that paid maternal leave will be a hindrance to the role women play within the workforce because legislation cannot change the laws of economics (Ghei 1). In other words, when the price of employing females goes up, the want for them goes down. However, research conducted on employers that have existing paid leave policies proposes that it leads to inconsequential costs to employers (Gault et al. 10). If women and families are now supported by the authorization of paid leave programs, more women would be willing to participate in the work force. A higher availability of women will result in an increase of employed females. A study done on California’s paid leave policies show “increased rates of maternal work a year after birth and increased hours of work and weeks of work by 15 to 20 percent within a child’s second year of life” (Pathe 4). By supporting women and families with paid leave programs, more females would feel comfortable to enter the working industries and more employers would be untroubled by employing …show more content…
The Earned Income Tax Credit was created to aid low to moderate income working people financially (“Policy Basics: The Earned Income Tax Credit” 1). However, the financial alleviation of the tax credit is generally misjudged in comparison to paid leave policies. If a woman took unpaid leave and relied on the tax credit to compensate for the money lost from her regular salary payments, she would only receive the money when she filed her taxes. Therefore, she would not have a reliable income at the time of her unpaid leave. This could result in financial complications caused by unsteady cash flow. On the other hand, those who rely on paid leave instead of the tax credit will receive part of their regular payments when they are out of work. This creates a steady flow of income for those who are on leave and still require money to take care of someone, such as themselves or a newborn. “In today’s tough economic times, families cannot afford to take unpaid leave”, says Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families (2). In addition, paid leave dispenses money to families at a faster rate than the tax credit or unpaid leave, which results in a greater flow of money within the economy, therefore benefitting families and businesses. Paid leave is