White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest discusses being a working father, as well as policy to facilitate family balance on Wednesday. (Photo by Preston R. Michelson/MNS)
WASHINGTON — Paid leave and workplace flexibility for parents is not just important for women — fathers need to be included as well, according to experts and report released at the progressive Center for American Progress on Wednesday.
“There has been a trend over the last several generations of fathers recognizing, not only that they can have a role in raising their kids, but that they should,” said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest at the briefing. “The kids benefit from that and the fathers themselves benefit from that kind of role.”
Earnest’s wife, Natalie, and young son, Walker, were in the audience as Earnest and others discussed proposals to promote family-friendly policies, including the funding for paid leave in President Barack Obama’s budget proposal released this week.
The president’s budget includes $2 billion to assist up to five states launch paid leave programs for parents. California, New Jersey and Rhode Island already have implemented paid family leave policies. The U.S. is one of only a handful of countries that do not mandate paid leave for at least mothers — including countries such as Lesotho, Swaziland and Papua New Guinea.
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off without losing their jobs, only covers about 60 percent of the American workforce because it only requires participation of large employers and mandates that employees must have been on the job at least a year. Of those eligible, many people still do not take unpaid leave because they cannot afford it.
This hurts fathers, who are the sole support or co-breadwinner of their families 60 percent of the time. But even that is changing.
The percentage of stay-at-home fathers, while still small, has doubled in the first decade of this century from 1.6 percent to 3.4 percent. In addition, 37 percent of married mothers out-earn their husbands.
“Men have already been trying to flip the switch. They got the message,” said Kathryn Edin, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. “They have changed and are waiting for society to catch up.”
One example of society being behind changing gender roles is that men who request workplace flexibility for family reasons receive lower wages, poorer performance evaluations, and fewer promotions than their counterparts, according to the Center for American Progress report.
A measure introduced by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in 2013 entitled both mothers and fathers to wage replacement at up to 66 percent of monthly wages with a maximum amount of $1,000 per week, for up to 12 weeks. It was never voted on and died in the last Congress.
As an example of paid paternity leave, the report referenced Quebec, whose law provides three to five weeks of father-only leave, with a wage replacement level up to 70 percent. Almost 80 percent of fathers took advantage of the paid leave. Mothers already get paid leave in Canada.
“It’s a broader societal trend, and it’s separate from politics,” said Earnest, referring to the change in the role of men in society. “But I think it is something that has been underway for some time and I think it’s continuing.”
