Hillary Proposes Flextime for Parents
Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 02:19:23 PM PDT
It's as if she had written the Motherhood Manifesto herself. Sen. Hillary Clinton offered a comprehensive family leave and flextime policy to families, including money to let low-income parents stay home with their children, according to details sent to MotherTalkers by the Clinton campaign.
To give all parents more time with their children, Hillary is proposing:
--Having all states give family leave by 2016. By “family leave,” she means time off for workers to care for their parents, children, spouses, or immediate family. To achieve this goal, she is committing $1 billion a year in start-up costs and matching funds for states to implement family leave through disability, unemployment insurance, business tax credits, “At Home Infant Care” and similar programs.
--Expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to give employees at companies with 25 or more workers 12 weeks of job-protected leave. The change from 50 employees (current law) to 25 would benefit 13 million workers at small companies.
--Guaranteeing at least 7 sick days per year -- up from the typical 5 days allotted by most employers.
--Promoting workplaces with flextime and telecommuting policies by providing grants and highlighting businesses that offer such perks. She will also require federal agencies to set specific telecommuting goals for their workers and allot up to $50 million annually in state and local telecommuting initiatives.
--Ensuring higher quality childcare by helping states improve and enforce licensing and safety standards of childcare centers, supporting public and private partnerships to increase the supply of affordable, high-quality childcare to working families and expanding the Child Care Development Block Grant to allow "qualifying low-income" families to stay home with their children. Currently, the block grants can be used only by parents who work outside the home.
--Making it illegal for businesses to discriminate against families for pregnancy or care-taking duties.
The total cost of her work-family initiative is $1.75 billion per year. Clinton plans to finance it by recovering the money from questionable -- or even illegal -- tax shelters.
Of course, the Republican spin will be that she is raising taxes. You can’t win with them no matter what sensible reform you propose to the tax code.
But, I am excited that Hillary has laid out a much-needed, but realistic, goal to come up with flextime for working families. She is a smart campaigner. She recently spoke to an audience in New Hampshire about her days as a working mother, according to an AP story:
Clinton described her own experience as a working mother, recalling that her law firm colleagues didn't know quite what to make of the firm's first pregnant lawyer.
"I just kept getting more and more pregnant, and the lawyers kept walking down the hall looking the other way," she said.
Clinton said she relished the time she took off after her daughter Chelsea was born, and that even though she was lucky to have help when she returned to work, she can empathize with the struggles many parents face.
"I've been fortunate to have so much support as a working mother, but I understand what it means to pulled in a million directions at once," she said, describing a hectic morning when both Chelsea and her baby sitter were sick and Clinton was due in court.
"It was just that gut-wrenching feeling," she said. "I was lucky enough to have a friend who came over and watched Chelsea while I ran to court and ran back home. But I know that happens every day, and there are so many pressures on young parents."
Beyond family leave, Clinton proposed requiring all workers to be given seven sick days a year that could be used to care for themselves or their children. Clinton's plan also would require employers to at least consider requests for flexible work schedules.
She also would increase funding for child care subsidies and allow them to be given to parents who stay at home with their children rather than only to those who send their children to daycare.
"Why should we pay for other people care for your children but not give you the support to stay home do it yourself?" she said.
One minor correction: the grant would apply only to "low-income" families, whose income has yet to be determined, the Hillary camp told me.
Still, this plan by the senator reminds me of a clip in the Motherhood Manifesto documentary, in which Republican consultant Frank Luntz says the candidate who runs on a platform on how to give more “time” to families, will win. Which one of us doesn’t need more time? It’s a bold and smart move on her part and it’s smart for businesses who don’t want to lose their best female employees.
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