Paid Parental Leave

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Paid Parental Leave

The United States has had a lot of improvements when it comes to issues to do with social concerns. The issue of inequality has been worked around and there are lot of efforts in trying to make sure that the issue of inequality in the American society is reduced. This means that a lot of people are getting opportunities they never had before and others are working around getting the same opportunities even though the greater number of US citizens have had the opportunity to be better I term of equality. There are so many areas that deal with equity and inequality and they include; parental leave, universal basic income, urban agriculture, community benefits agreements, ending cash bail and defunding the police (Byker, 2016). All these are directed towards making the American society a better place to live. However, the ideal conditions for equity and equality have not been met and efforts are still being made. One of the most important policies which has brought a new level of equity and equality to the work place is the paid parental leave which many different people have different views about. This paper discusses paid parental leave and its impacts on the general American population in terms of equity.

Paid parental leave was signed into a law in December 2019. This policy is only available to federal officers who have been covered and it was an amendment towards FMLA. The policy seeks to maintain and enhance equality in a number of ways (Burtle, & Bezruchka, 2016). Firstly, the policy enables the different people who have worked for the federal agency where they are stationed for 12 months. This means that anyone who has worked for 12 months is eligible for the federal paid parental leave. The pay that is received during the period of paid parental leave is a normal pay just like a person was on a normal leave. However, the pay does not include such things like Sunday premium pay. This has very many benefits to the people receiving it and it enhances equality in a number of ways.

When a person is pregnant and they need special care, they are always caught up between either taking care of their jobs or taking care of their little born children. This therefore means that there is a lot of pressure on the people who are given the work of taking care of their kids and at the same time making sure they do not lose their jobs and most of the times this was viewed as unfair because indeed it is unfair. In the same manner, the issues which present themselves like financial issues when a person is about to give birth or have a new child or even adopt one are always very important and serious ones to be considered. This means that when people are not given a good care, they are likely to end up being stressed and even being unable to continue with their job and this is majorly in relation to payment. Therefore, paying federal agents for 12 weeks when they are on leave makes them able to fully manage their family issues and work issues because they get pay and at the same time get to have time for family which is very important in anyone’s life.

The other important aspect of justice that is brought out by the policy is the issue of having a good environment for the child to grow. If the child grows in a way that is not good enough just because the parent or guardian lost a job to take care of them, it will not be justice and fair to the parents, guardians and the child. Therefore, considering this has been a great step towards making sure that justice is served in terms of childbirth and care (Casey, & Corday, 2008). When a child grows up and they do not get to feel the warmth of their parents because they were busy working not to lose their jobs and lose their livelihoods it becomes very difficult for the children to understand and in fact this puts them on a road to regrets and the feeling of animosity towards their country and many other social structures which never tried to help the kids become better people by allowing their parents to be with them.

The parents’ initial presence in the lives of their children is usually very important and this forms a very great part of the formation and growth of the child (Waldfogel, 2001). Therefore, if the child does not get this basic care and love their formation is usually not fully done and they may display the different issues which might be related to a deficiency they had when they were children. Therefore, what it means for equality is that these children should be given an equal starting point just like the other children of other people like self-employed business people or just any other person who is there present for their children when they are growing up.

The other important aspect of doing away with inequality when it comes to the policy of paid leave is the fact that a person has to have worked for at least 12 months before they are given a leave. This means that the person has to notify the authorities early in time and make sure they are aware of the persons taking leave sometime soon (Adema et al, 2015). This means that every person has an equal chance because if a person would like to get a chance for a paid leave just immediately after the policy was introduced it would have been unfair to some people since maybe they were on a leave and they would like to be paid just like the others. It might also be a time for the workers and the government to arrange for funds towards the same and therefore service for 12 months is a period of being tested whether a person is truly committed to their job and even though their needs are taken care of, a way of trying to see if they will take care of the needs of the agencies they work for and if they will be understanding enough.

Even though it was a bold move for the government, the policy is faced with issues of inequality whereby some private companies and organizations might be unwilling to pay their workers when they are going for a leave which involves an adoption or a child being born. This sets a new phase of inequality and to deal with this challenge might be difficult for some companies. The government has set a good example and a lot of others are expected to follow. However, it does not come out automatically and I fact some companies might never follow in the footsteps. Therefore, the issues of some companies complaining of financial stability and others complaining of issues like stable capital base or just being unable to fund such leaves makes it very difficult to have equality still.

References

Byker, T. S. (2016). Paid parental leave laws in the United States: does short-duration leave affect women’s labor-force attachment?. American Economic Review, 106(5), 242-46.

Adema, W., Clarke, C., & Frey, V. (2015). Paid parental leave: Lessons from OECD countries and selected US states.

Waldfogel, J. (2001). International policies toward parental leave and child care. The Future of Children, 99-111.

Casey, J., & Corday, K. (2008). Parental leave policies in 21 countries: Assessing generosity and gender equality.

Burtle, A., & Bezruchka, S. (2016, June). Population health and paid parental leave: what the United States can learn from two decades of research. In Healthcare (Vol. 4, No. 2, p. 30). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.