U. S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand this weekend made her case on CNN for the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, legislation she sponsored to provide every American worker with paid family and medical leave.
Under the measure, a national, gender-neutral paid family and medical leave insurance program would be established, ensuring that American workers would no longer have to choose between a paycheck and caring for themselves or a family member.
Specifically, the bill would create an independent trust fund within the Social Security Administration to collect contributions and provide benefits. This trust would be funded by employee and employer contributions of two-tenths of one percent of wages each, creating a self-sufficient program that would not add to the federal budget. The expected cost to the average worker would be similar to the expense of a cup of coffee a week.
The proposal makes leave available to every individual for up to 60 workdays or 12 weeks regardless of the size of their current employer and regardless of whether such individual is currently employed by an employer, self-employed or currently unemployed, as long as the person has sufficient earnings and work history.
Under this plan, workers would be able to address their own serious health condition, including pregnancy or childbirth, and those of their loved ones – whether it’s caring for a new child or a seriously ill parent, spouse, or partner.
“We are the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have paid leave, which is absurd because for most families, eight out of 10 moms are working,” said Gillibrand, a mother of two.
“Members of Congress live in a bubble. A lot of them have caregivers at home. They have unlimited child support, unlimited resources…and so they have enormous opportunity to provide for whatever family event they have…and so I think they are out of touch,” she added.
Watch the full CNN interview with Gillibrand making the case for the legislation here.
