66% of Mothers with Young Children Work Outside the Home
20% of Adults Care for an Elderly Relative
78% of People Who Need Family Leave Can’t Afford to Take IAt
Left to Right:Jane Thompson: Working Families Party, Martha Baker: NYS Coalition for Paid Family Leave, Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, Melanie Castellano & Sean McCabe with their two month old daughter Kiera, and Councilman Joe Addabbo at the Learning Tree Early Childhood Center in Middle Village.
Councilman Joe Addabbo joined with Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, the Working Families Party (WFP), the NY Coalition for Paid Family Leave, and a new mother to call on the state senate to finally get serious about Paid Family Leave (PFL). Addabbo lambasted the Senate Republicans’ lackluster effort to address the growing concern in the labor force between family/work balance. Citing a late session, one house bill which was introduced by Republican Senator Thomas Morahan, and co-sponsored by a number of his colleagues including Senator Maltese, Addabbo dismissed the legislation as a pathetic attempt to guarantee political cover, rather than a legitimate policy initiative. In June, 30 Senate Democrats signed a letter in support of the legislation, in addition to the four sponsoring Republicans, which would’ve passed had the leadership brought it to a vote.
"There are thousands of people across this state who every day have to choose between caring for a newborn child, or a sick family member, and putting food on the table. Women represent 53% of the state’s workforce yet Paid Family Leave eludes us. The bill put forth in June is tantamount to an empty gesture, rather than the real life legislation New Yorkers deserve. This is a serious issue which warrants much more than a signature,” said Councilman Joe Addabbo who chairs the Committee on Civil Service & Labor in the City Council.
“The Senate has bottled action which would be of minimal cost to business, and in fact strengthen our work force. Working mothers still remain the primary care giver to their children and relatives, and it’s time that New York State caught up with the changing face of labor. Bottom line: New York is not doing enough for young mothers and working people,” added Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan who sponsored the legislation in the New York State Assembly.
Studies by the New York Women’s Foundation found that the state ranks in the bottom third of states for women’s labor force participation (44th); and African American and Latina women are much less likely to be in managerial or professional occupations relative to white and Asian American women. However, women continue to enter the workforce at an increasing rate, and New York is no different.
Paid Family Leave is an initiative that would expand New York’s existing Temporary Disability Insurance program (TDI) to cover a worker who needs time off to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, or a seriously ill family member. Workers would receive up to 12 weeks of benefits. Under the current Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) program, benefits are relatively low: 50% of a claimant's average weekly wage, up to a maximum of $170 a week. The current Paid Family Leave proposal would extend the same level of benefits to new situations.
According to June 2008 estimates by the Department of Insurance, PFL would only cost about $8/person annually or 16 cents/week, which translates into a 10-15% increase in disability premiums.
In polls by the Community Service Society, New Yorkers across income levels said they would be willing to pay for a paid family leave benefit. Seventy-six percent of low-income New Yorkers and 64% of moderate and higher income New Yorkers said they would favor extending TDI to provide up to 12 weeks of paid family leave even if it meant $1 a week would be deducted from their paychecks. (Source: 2005 Unheard Third Survey, CSS).
“Serf Maltese’s insincere support of a one house bill which reads like a 3rd grade book report is an insult to working families everywhere. Maltese boasts of passing over 200 bills in his career, so why is it that suddenly a senior member of the Senate cannot advance a bill which bares his name? Albany’s continued willingness to play politics with the practical application of our lives is reckless and wrong,” added Martha Baker from the New York Coalition for Paid Family Leave, and a resident of Forrest Hills.
“Senator Maltese and the Republican leadership in the State Senate have failed the working men and women of this state by playing games with the important issue of Paid Family Leave,” said Jane Thompson, Executive Committee member of the Working Families Party and Political Director of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. “Too many workers aren’t able to afford to take time off of work after the birth of a new child or when a family member is seriously ill. That is why we need Joe Addabbo as our State Senator in Albany. He will provide the leadership necessary to move this issue to the forefront and get legislation passed.”
Addabbo went on to detail further the relevant demographic statistical data from the 2000 Census for the 15th senate district represented by Serf Maltese:
10,995 women (16-65+) without a disability live below the poverty level
60,692 women in the labor force
4,848 women collect unemployment (as opposed to the 67,017 women who are just not in the labor force)
7,871 households (married, male head only, female head only) who are below the poverty line (this includes everyone, no matter what sort of public assistance they do or do not receive.)
84,720 households with wage or salary income
27, 242 households with no wage or salary income.
“I received six weeks paid disability from my job at a local Key Food, but it’s not enough. Times are particularly tough and they’re only going to get tougher with more mouths to feed. I’m lucky to be part of a supportive family, but I have to go back to work sooner than I would like. These first few months with my daughter are some of the most precious, but unfortunately I won’t be around as much as I would like,” said Melanie Castellano as she held her eight week old daughter, Kiera.
California’s Paid Family Leave law, enacted in 2004 has been extremely successful, even saving small businesses an estimated $89 million dollars a year in decreased turnover and a savings of $25 million a year to state on disability assistance.
Similarly, advocates have used California to illustrate the benefit to employers and as well as employees.
In 1993 President Clinton signed the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) into law, allowing covered and eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave from a job to attend to their own health, the health of a family member, or to spend time with a new child. Much data exist, however, indicating that while many Americans need to take leave for family or medical reasons, a significant percentage of these individuals do not take leave because they cannot afford to miss a paycheck. Twenty-eight states have identified this shortcoming in the current law and the adverse impact it has had on employees and their employers. However, only California, New Jersey, and Washington have actually passed Paid Family Leave into law.
