From Nat Baldino
After decades of support from basic coalitions and future-oriented legislators, the urgency for a paid federal holiday program is stronger than ever. In April, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) presented a draft discussion, the Building an Economy for Families Act, which proposes paid family and sick leave for all workers. Days later, the Biden-Harris administration incorporated a comprehensive national paid vacation program into the American Families Plan. In May, the House Republicans countered Ways and Means with their own proposal. With multiple plans on the table, proponents must push for a political solution that will help the workers who need them most.
Undoubtedly, the pandemic has shed some light on the desperate need for paid vacation. Women lost 5.1 million jobs and 2.3 million women left working life completely during the pandemic. These figures disproportionately include women and women of color who are more likely to be the main or sole breadwinners for their families. Black women are also most likely to be pushed into industries that pay low wages and have no benefits. Paid vacation would have allowed more women, like the 154,000 black women who left the workforce during the pandemic, to keep their jobs instead of choosing between taking care of their health and making a paycheck.
Fortunately, proposals like Neal’s build on the knowledge that long-term paid vacation advocates have accumulated over many decades. Neal’s proposal builds on the Family and Health Insurance Leave Act (FAMILY Act) by MP Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). Until these new measures, it was the only comprehensive paid vacation proposal at the federal level. Paid Vacation Champions have long advocated a universal, comprehensive, and progressive federal program such as the FAMILY Act. With paid vacation finally getting its due attention, it is important to remember the lessons we learned from the FAMILY Act and from the nine states and Washington, DC that have passed their own paid vacation programs. Policymakers today need to ensure that paid leave includes all workers and families, provides adequate wage replacement, and is job-protected to ensure the health and safety of all working families.
Neal’s proposal is based on the FAMILY Act. It provides 12 weeks of fully-insured paid family and sick leave that allows workers to take leave in the event of serious illness to care for a spouse, child, parent, or themselves and to take in a new child. This permitted vacation use was made standard in the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA). Neal’s plan is universal: While many government-paid vacation plans include gig workers or civil servants, Neal’s plan covers all workers – regardless of employer size, seniority, or self-employment. It is also universal in its definition of family that allows non-bloody and illegitimate relationships to be considered family.
In addition, Neal’s proposal builds on the experience gained since the introduction of the FAMILY Act on wage replacement. His plan is a tiered system whereby low-wage earners receive more of their wages (85 percent), while the rate is reduced to the highest paid workers, who receive between 5 and 75 percent of their wages. Without a full wage replacement, employees accept an unsustainable wage cut if they make use of the service. Therefore, a plan that replaces as much of their wages as possible is imperative, especially for low paid workers.
The components of the Neal and Biden-Harris plans are the framework that a fair paid vacation program must contain. Republicans have proposed alternatives that use tax credits and savings accounts – options that do not give low-paid workers access to paid vacation.
For example, Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) and Republican Ways and Means Committee Leader Kevin Brady (R-TX) proposed the Protecting Worker Payschecks and Family Choice Act, which allows workers to deposit into a savings account that uses can be used to pay for medical and child care costs. The plan also allows private sector workers to accumulate free time instead of overtime wages. Both proposals are totally inadequate, especially for workers on low wages.
It is precisely for this reason that politics must create a universal, standardized paid vacation program. The Republican proposal consists of measures that many high-income workers already have. Low-wage workers are cut out of the Republican scheme because they are either underpaid to save money or because they have non-performing employers. A paid vacation program that leaves out the workers who need it most is not true paid vacation.
Working families need a paid vacation program that is accessible, comprehensive, progressive, and job-protected. When nearly 40 percent of Americans report they don’t have enough cash to cover an emergency expense of $ 400, the Biden-Harris Plan and Neal Proposal are welcome steps toward a priority future. By creating a paid family and sick leave program that is affordable and accessible to all workers, Congress has an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to working families.
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