Why Paid Family Leave Might Finally Happen
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2021
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The United States is the only rich industrialized nation without a universal paid family leave policy. But as child and home care costs balloon, and the pandemic continues to leave families in precarious work situations, many caretakers have hit a wall. Congress might finally be ready to do something about it.
Guest: Chabeli Carrazana, economy reporter for the 19th.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When I was born, my 23-year-old mother took four weeks of short-term disability leave from the small town newspaper where she worked, in order to spend time recovering from childbirth and to care for me. She had to go back to work when I was so small, I couldn't support my own head with my underdeveloped baby neck muscles. |
| 0:21.8 | If my mother had wanted to spend more time taking care of her infant instead of crying |
| 0:25.5 | postpartum tears at her desk, her only other option was to quit the workforce. |
| 0:30.2 | It's what a lot of women did. |
| 0:33.3 | In the intervening years, we've had seven presidents, 11 Fast and Furious movies, and two whole waves of feminism, but we as a country still haven't made much progress on paid family leave. |
| 0:44.9 | Just ask anybody who recently had a baby, like Jasmine Graham of Washington, D.C. |
| 0:51.6 | Jasmine didn't get paid leave when her son was born at the very end of 2019 because the |
| 0:56.7 | restaurant where she worked as a server didn't provide it. |
| 1:00.3 | And I was like, so do you guys offer any paid leave or any programs that I could be in |
| 1:04.9 | so that, you know, I can still be able to support myself while I can't work? |
| 1:09.8 | And they said, unfortunately, they only offer it to employees that have been with the company |
| 1:14.4 | for more than two, three years. |
| 1:16.4 | And I had only been with the company for about a year, which was absurd. |
| 1:20.7 | But, you know, it is what it is. |
| 1:24.7 | Jasmine faced the predicament that parents and caretakers across the U.S. have faced for generations. |
| 1:30.3 | When they need it the most, the social safety net just kind of left them without any workable options. |
| 1:35.8 | Some workers are guaranteed up to 12 weeks unpaid leave, but not everyone can afford to do that. |
| 1:41.4 | Rapidly rising costs of living and wage increases that barely keep up with |
| 1:44.9 | inflation means that having a baby in this country is more financially daunting than it's ever been. |
| 1:50.8 | Like, how am I going to get prepared for my baby's arrival if I don't have any money or any |
| 1:57.2 | source of income coming in? So I got really stressed out, depressed. |
| 2:02.4 | Like, I was just, I was really going through it when, you know, |
... |
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