Time to Care: What Families Need for Work to Work

1. Time to Care: What Families Need for Work to Work Ellen Bravo Multi-States Working Families Consortium

2. Being a Good Family Member Can Cost You Your Job • Families have changed – workplace hasn’t kept pace. • Not enough time to care: kids, seniors, families suffer • Affects many, but especially low-wage

3. Time to Care • Reframe from marginalized “women’s issues” to key family values • Understand roots in problem public and corporate policies • Work for change.

4. Background: 1940-1960s • Temporary Disability Insurance funds introduced in 5 states – Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, California, Hawaii • Pregnancy not included • NJ: lumped with injuries that were “willfully self-inflicted or incurred during the perpetration of a high misdemeanor.”

5. Background: 1976 • Supreme Court says pregnancy has nothing to do with sex – not covered by Title VII.

6. Background: 1978 • Pregnancy Discrimination Act: • can’t fire women for being pregnant – but you don’t have to hold their jobs. • pregnancy like other temporary disabilities – but most women work for firms with no short-term disability plans.

7. Background: 1993 • 12 weeks leave to care for for new child, seriously ill child, spouse or elderly parent, or personal illness • Includes job guarantee and health insurance • Broader than maternity – and includes men.

8. Problems with FMLA

9. Bangladesh Botswana Brazil Cameroon Canada India Iran Mexico Mongolia Netherlands Norway Swaziland Sweden U.S. Zambia Which Countries Lack Paid Leave?

10. 100% Pay: Bangladesh Brazil Cameroon India Netherlands Norway Sweden Zambia Partial Pay Canada – 50 weeks, 55% Botswana – 12 weeks 25% Iran, 16 weeks, 66% Mongolia – 17weeks, 70% No Pay Swaziland U.S. How the US Stacks Up

11. Background: Sick Days • Half the workforce – and ¾ of low-wage workers - have no paid sick days. • Many who do can’t use them to care for sick family members.

12. Background: 1996 • “Welfare as we know it” is ended -- by those who’ve never known it. • TANF is modeled on conditions of low-wage women. • Aimed to cut rolls, not poverty

13. New Glass Ceiling • Study by Joan Williams and Nancy Segal • New form of sex discrimination – unequal treatment of mothers. Affects fathers as well.

14. Attitudes: Loose Lips • Trezza v. Hartford, Inc. - Employer told plaintiff he didn’t believe mothers should work: "I don't see how you can do either job well.” • • Bailey v. Scott-Gallaher, Inc. - Employer told her she had been terminated “because she was no longer dependable since she had delivered a child.” • • Knussman v. Maryland - Trooper Knussman’s supervisor said his wife would have to be “in a coma or dead” for a man to qualify as the primary caregiver.

15. Lack of Policies “If the kids are sick and sent home from school, there’s no place for them to go. The school called and said I had to get my 5-year-old daughter. I was fired.” -DeNice, rural county outside Eau Claire, WI Institutional Policies and Practices

16. Lack of Policies “I had 4 jobs - I drove a school bus, delivered newspapers, worked with the Girl Scouts, and sold Tupperware. None of the jobs had benefits. I had to make hard choices about supporting my kids instead of spending time with them.” - Julia, Milwaukee

17. Lack of Flexibility: Increase in non-standard shifts Not allowed to make up time Rigid use of personal days At the fringes: Even “best list” companies fall short Policies for managers only Depends on manager discretion Problem Policies Cont’d

18. Problem Practices Cont’d • “Objective” requirements affecting women differently Example: tenure clock Based on stereotyped view of “ideal worker”: Lawrence Summers

19. Policies Available But Inequitable Part-time Report: “I work 30 hours as an engineer and love my work. But benefits for part-timers are very limited - insurance has a significantly higher premium, vacation and sick time are cut in half regardless of hours worked. I lost tuition reimbursement & paid maternity leave. Holiday pay was just eliminated. I’ve been promoted 3 times, but have hit the limit.” -Jane, Madison

20. Corporate Culture “I spent 13 years at a large corporation. You have to be willing to give it all to the company. There are no role models of women with young kids in upper management. They wanted me to fly somewhere on July 4th. When I told them I had family plans, they were aghast. I left and opened my own business.” - Julie, Milwaukee

21. Corporate Culture Cont’d • Home Alone 3 • Jack Welch: lip service only: “People who publicly struggle with work-life balance problems and continually turn to the company for help get pigeonholed as ambivalent, entitled, uncommitted, incompetent – or all of the above.”

22. Impact on Parents – and Kids • Work can’t pay if it doesn’t last – and it can’t last if it jeopardizes kids. • Cost of starting over.

23. Impact on Children • Kids go to school sick. • Kids send themselves to school sick. • Health and learning problems become disabilities.

24. What’s at Stake for Low-Wage Workers • High cost of being poor • Ability to keep a job, build assets • Well-being of children and families • High costs for employers

25. What’s at Stake for Women • Low-income women average much less pay than male counterparts, partly because of job loss due to family care. • This is one reason the U.S. has the highest child-poverty rate in the industrialized world.

26. Redesign the Building • core instead of fringe, how work designed • change concept success • make formal, available to all • make affordable, accessible • quality part-time - equity in pay, benefits, advancement • accountability for managers

27. Guarantee for All • Some smart employers will do this on their own – e.g, SAS • Not all – like asking 2-year-olds to determine when they need a time out.

28. Solutions: Public Policies •   ensure affordable leave – use it or lose it •     include routine illness, Healthy Families Act •     expand definition family – same-sex, sibs, etc. •     raise the wage floor • re-value caregiving work •     ensure equity for part-timers •     create right to request flexible schedules • end mandatory overtime

29. Public Policy Changes • Child Care: • Public investment • Improve quality • After-school care

30. DON’T: • Erode the 40-hour work week • Gut the FMLA

31. Multi-State Working Families Consortium • Eight state coalitions: California, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Washington and Wisconsin • Collaborating for more effective action, raise public awareness.

32. Making Progress in the States • Winning forms of paid leave • expanding TDI to include family leave: • California • New Jersey • New York • creating new form of social insurance: • Washington • Massachusetts

33. Making Progress in the States • Making progress on guaranteeing protection: • Sick days: • Massachusetts • All of us • Family Care: • Maine • FMLA for school activities: • Georgia • Wisconsin

34. Making Progress in the States • Expanding UI for part-timers, family hardship • Maine • Georgia • Wisconsin • Exposing efforts to gut FMLA: • Rapid Response Team

35. Increased Collaboration • Connecting the dots: Labor . Women . Seniors . Progressive employers . Family physicians . Faith-based . Disabilities groups . Chronic disease . Alzheimers Associations . AIDS groups . Mental health organizations . PTAs . Principals . School boards . Social workers . Cities/counties groups . Citizen Action . Welfare rights/anti-poverty groups . Children’s groups . Foster children . Work-family researchers . Legal groups . Parents of adult disabled . Adoption groups . Immigrant advocates . Groups in communities of color . Human Rights groups . Non-profit associations . Insurers . Women’s business associations . AAUW . YWCA . Planned Parenthood .

36. Need Leadership On Capitol Hill • Agree it’s time to care. • Lay the groundwork for policy change. • Redefine issues – link what happens to kids, families with what happens to parents at work.