03.03.09
“What we have heard today makes it clear that during good times and bad, employees and employers workers benefit from family-friendly policies,” said U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), chair of the subcommittee. “These policies will help people who desperately need them; they make good economic sense; and they will help us catch up to the rest of the world.”
Many workers often have to choose between their paycheck and taking a day off because of an illness or a child who needs to see a doctor. In light of the economic downturn, witnesses said that this choice has become a much higher stake balancing act for workers.
“Now, more than ever, workers cannot afford to lose a job due to work-family balance challenges,” said Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. “Establishing job-protected family and medical leave for more workers would help to ensure that no worker is pushed into the masses of the unemployed simply because they needed to care for a sick child or need time to recover from an illness.”
Although more than 60 percent of private-sector workers already have access to paid sick days, lower income workers are much less likely to be offered paid sick leave.
Rebia Clay Mixon, a homecare worker from Chicago whose job is to take care of her brother who is disabled found it difficult to care for her husband when he because terminally ill. She frequently had to choose between a paycheck – the only income in her household – and taking care of her dying husband.
“I had to care for him and my brother at the same time,” said Mixon, whose husband died last April. “I couldn’t afford to take any unpaid time off to focus on my husband, because the three of us were surviving only on my income.”
Many studies have found that providing some form of paid sick leave not only benefits workers, but also helps the employer’s bottom line because turnover is lower and workers are more satisfied on the job.
“Access to paid sick days and to family leave insurance increases employee productivity and reduces turnover,” said Eileen Appelbaum, director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University. “Turnover is costly for employers, and access to paid time off to care for yourself or a family member significantly improves retention and reduces these costs.”
Woolsey introduced “The Balancing Act” in the last Congress to encourage family-friendly workplaces that would, among other incentives, guarantee paid leave and expand eligibility for family and medical leave. Woolsey said she will be looking at additional ways to encourage employers to adopt paid leave policies.
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More Needs to Be Done to Encourage Family Friendly Work Policies, Witnesses Tell House Labor Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, D.C. – More needs to be done to encourage paid sick and family medical leave policies that help workers balance work and family, witnesses told the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House Education and Labor Committee.“What we have heard today makes it clear that during good times and bad, employees and employers workers benefit from family-friendly policies,” said U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), chair of the subcommittee. “These policies will help people who desperately need them; they make good economic sense; and they will help us catch up to the rest of the world.”
Many workers often have to choose between their paycheck and taking a day off because of an illness or a child who needs to see a doctor. In light of the economic downturn, witnesses said that this choice has become a much higher stake balancing act for workers.
“Now, more than ever, workers cannot afford to lose a job due to work-family balance challenges,” said Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. “Establishing job-protected family and medical leave for more workers would help to ensure that no worker is pushed into the masses of the unemployed simply because they needed to care for a sick child or need time to recover from an illness.”
Although more than 60 percent of private-sector workers already have access to paid sick days, lower income workers are much less likely to be offered paid sick leave.
Rebia Clay Mixon, a homecare worker from Chicago whose job is to take care of her brother who is disabled found it difficult to care for her husband when he because terminally ill. She frequently had to choose between a paycheck – the only income in her household – and taking care of her dying husband.
“I had to care for him and my brother at the same time,” said Mixon, whose husband died last April. “I couldn’t afford to take any unpaid time off to focus on my husband, because the three of us were surviving only on my income.”
Many studies have found that providing some form of paid sick leave not only benefits workers, but also helps the employer’s bottom line because turnover is lower and workers are more satisfied on the job.
“Access to paid sick days and to family leave insurance increases employee productivity and reduces turnover,” said Eileen Appelbaum, director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University. “Turnover is costly for employers, and access to paid time off to care for yourself or a family member significantly improves retention and reduces these costs.”
Woolsey introduced “The Balancing Act” in the last Congress to encourage family-friendly workplaces that would, among other incentives, guarantee paid leave and expand eligibility for family and medical leave. Woolsey said she will be looking at additional ways to encourage employers to adopt paid leave policies.
Created with flickrSLiDR.
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