BIDEN'S Paid Family & Medical Leave: Can This Piece Shuffle Women’s Equality in the Work Force and Add to Gender Equality

 

Biden Proposes a 12-week Medical and Family Leave for New Parents

New York Times Business article Paid leave faces paring in congress brief on President Biden’s $3.5 trillion economic agenda for mothers-on-leave providing them with 12 weeks of paid leaves for new parents, caretakers that tend to seriously ill members, and people with serious medical conditions.  The proposal is brought forth by the Democrats who plan on compensating workers at least two-thirds of their earnings by funding the program with higher taxes imposed on the wealthy and corporations. 

 

fun fact:              women with college degrees earn about the same as men with high school degree.

 

The New York Times article also pinpoints that only 23% of private sector employees have family leave through an employer.  42% have personal medical leave from an employer-provided short-term disability policy.  Researchers and economists also support the federal program citing its potential boost to the labor market raising women’s mobility in the work force and increased return to work after bearing children.

 

Family and Medical Leave act of 1993 offer 12 weeks of leave within a 12-month period with job protection and continued health care coverage in certain situations.  It is part of the governing on social-economic policy. 

 

Many European countries collect and spend from public resources than U.S.  The budget is an instrument of fiscal policy aimed at consciously influencing economic life of a nation.  The budget is divided in receipts which is the amount government is expected to raise in taxes and other fees; budget authority which is amount agencies are allowed to obligate and lend; outlays which is the amount actually paid by the government in cash or check.  Funds to buy equipment or property, for example, pay employee’s salaries.  Different taxes yield different amount of revenues from the same income base.        

 

The national government is a chief employer of graduated income tax which levies taxes by increasing tax rates with rising income.  Elastic tax shows the greatest increase in revenue for a given rise in taxable income.  Graduated income tax is a part of elastic tax.  States rely on sales or excise taxes which levy flat percentage on price of purchased goods.  Locals rely on property taxes such as real estates and other personal belongings.

Tax decisions are usually made in Capitol Hill by House Ways & Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the executive branch.  Tax policies influence the revenue for government programs.

fun fact:              only ¼ women are employed during marriage because of family commitments over their careers.

 

How do employers feel about working mothers?  Some employers think mothers make worse employees.  New mothers are ten times more likely to lose their jobs than other employees on leave.  A good number of men and unemployed women feel that employed women are not as good mothers as unemployed women. 

fun fact:              divorce is more than likely if women’s earning is the major household income earner.

 

fun fact:              following divorce, women’s income is only 24% of the previous family’s income while men’s are at 87%.

 

fun fact:              most women leave marriages with less ability to support themselves.

 

Do employed women make better/worse mothers than employed women?  Here is what the polls show on men and women’s views, employed or unemployed.

 

	Better	Equal	Worse
Men	22%	22%	40%
Unemployed Women	15%	35%	39%
Employed Women	42%	26%	24%

 

 

fun fact:              people at lower income range are more likely to divorce.

 

fun fact:              in the upper income scale, they are less likely to divorce if husband is their primary income earner.

 

fun fact:              women with higher than bachelor’s degree are more likely to divorce.

 

 

New York Times article also locates University of Virginia professor Chistopher J Ruhm claims on the California’s paid leave creating work opportunities for mothers who worked during pregnancy by 17%. 

 

An independent research has also shown that the longer a woman remains in welfare, the less likely she is to have a family.  Mothers on AFDL Aid to Families with Dependent Children make up ¹/₄ of births than mothers who are not. 

AFDC falls under the group of redistributive policy which is a purposeful effort by the government to shift allocating its funds in wealth, home, property, or rights of any broad classes or group’s within the population.  Other examples of redistributive policies include affirmative action, graduated income tax, Medicaid for the elderly, AFDC.  They are often the talk of controversy.  

 

 

fun fact:              income is correlated to divorce.

 

fun fact:              couples who marry later are less likely to divorce.

 

fun fact:              children of divorced parents stay with the mother.

 

fun fact:              3 common reasons for divorce:     infidelity, failure to meet economic obligations, child rearing disagreements.

 

fun fact:              70% of divorced eventually remarry.

 

fun fact:              81% of women without children remarry; 73% of women with 1-2 children remarry; 57% with more than 3 children remarry.

 

fun fact:              men remarry more than women and more quickly.

 

fun fact:              remarriages are more likely to end in divorce than the first marriage.

 

fun fact:              gender inequality is both a cause and effect in relation to divorce.

 

 

 

Amount of money granted to households vary by state.  The federal government mandates AFDL paid to eligible single parent families with minor children but no minimum benefit is stipulated.  Maximum monthly grants for family in 1990, for example, ranged from $121 in Alabama to $720 in Alaska.  Median benefit for single parent with 2 children was $359/mo. 

 

fun fact:              average  amount of child support to white women is higher than Hispanics and blacks.

 

Grants are also low in all states.  Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have maximum monthly benefit for family of three with no other than AFDC at 75% of poverty line.  The closest grant approaching poverty line is California with maximum grant at $633 making up 84% of the poverty line.

 

 

Majority of American views on welfare mothers stand to be corrected.  Note these 3 myths on welfare mothers:

 

1.        Welfare mothers form single parent households to gain welfare. 

Single-mother headed households who receive AFDC peaked in the early 1970s and declined.

2.        Welfare mothers purposely bear children to increase their grants.  Welfare family average 2.2 children which is lower than the national average. 

3.       Welfare accounts for a big part of the national budge.  Nearly 1% of federal budget is allocated to AFDC.  Only 3.5% of social welfare programs make up programs for the poor like AFDC and GA.  

 

fun fact:              pensions and education are not considered marital property.

 

fun fact:              husbands are likely to leave marriages with more assets.

 

fun fact:              many fathers say but only a few fathers actually file for child custody.  57% reported they wanted custody.

 

fun fact:              divorced fathers do not provide assistance to their children living with their ex-wives.

 

fun fact:              divorced father have little contact with children and are unlikely to contribute to their child which require direct contact like helping with homework and attending school functions.

 

fun fact:              many women complain their ex-husband’s failure to visit as well as making child support payments.

 

fun fact:              40% of children are not visited by their fathers after divorce.

 

 

Social Welfare Spending      (U.S. Bureau of Census 1989)

 

Social Services:  AFDC, GA, Work incentive . . . . . . . . . 3.5%

Social Insurance: Social Security, Medicare, Worker’s Comp . . . 68.8%

Medicaid  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6.2%

Food Stamps    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     2.4%

Supplemental Security Income   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    2.2%

Health Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . .              4.3%

VA Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       5.3%

Education  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .            3.3%

Housing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .               2.7%

Other:  school lunches, vocational rehab  . . . . . . . . . .     2.6%

Total in Millions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .  563,191

 

 

Welfare systems treat people differently.  Social Security treats women and children with fewer supports than the needy.  Social Security is for people who are perceived to be the deserving poor.  AFDC is for women who failed in their family responsibilities.  

 

fun fact:              women with varying education EARN less than men at the same level.

 

fun fact:              the other 75% of divorced women had hard time finding jobs.

 

Women are major consumers of welfare.  They also over-represent the workers in the welfare system.  Several theorists argue that welfare system enforces potential organization of gender especially the role of women.  Treatment of women by the welfare system, for example, can push them into marriages as sole means of survival.  Marriage can operate to keep women controlled and dependent on men.  Feminists would argue that women face inequality in the labor market, marriages, divorce courts, and the welfare system.  Men have controlled women's bodies and their spending in marriages.  Feminist's view pinpoints marriages as a means for men to prolong gender inequality on women, particularly young women.  Biden's new 12 week medical leave plan can potentially help women rise up from gender inequality in work place and close the overall gap in gender inequality.