Paid leave making progress, but greater consistency needed

With its first state legislative hearing scheduled today, this year will mark the third attempt to pass a paid family leave law in Hawaii in as many years.

Though the bills have not changed much since 2013, the same cannot be said for our nation’s political, cultural and business landscapes. Last year saw tech companies like Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Netflix, Adobe, Zillow and Spotify institute groundbreaking paid-leave policies for American workers.

Democratic presidential candidates are currently debating how (not if) to implement paid leave, and at least 25 localities — including New York City and Boston and jurisdictions in Minnesota, Oregon and Pennsylvania — are instituting paid leave for municipal workers.

Starting this week, Hawaii’s lawmakers will have the opportunity to join these employers in acknowl- edging the crucial links between caring for families and supporting a thriving economy.

Paid-leave policies contribute to working families’ economic security by providing the means to both care for and support ohana. They also help close the wage gap.

Providing wage replacement increases the likelihood that mothers will return to previous employers with the same wages, reducing gaps in work histories, and lessening the impacts of parenthood on professional options.

Currently, women in Hawaii who are employed full time lose a total of more than $1.4 billion annually due to the wage gap, which exists regardless of industry, occupational choice or educational attainment level.

Happily, because more and more corporations (and some states and municipalities) are beginning to understand the business case for offering paid family leave, some American workers are able to access policies that are the norm worldwide. However, these policies are wildly inconsistent.

For example, the amount of paid leave offered by tech companies ranges from six weeks to a full year, with benefits sometimes provided only to mothers, often a much smaller benefit for fathers, and occasionally equally for both parents.

Caring for newly adopted children may be included, while caring for other family members (such as spouses or parents) often is not.

Generally speaking, paid leave is offered to only salaried and/or higher-paid employees.

That’s why, in spite of progress, paid parental leave is at only 13 percent of the America’s civilian workforce.

In order to ensure that all workers, regardless of gender, job or professional status have access to compre- hensive family leave, national advocates have been working in a divided Congress to pass a federal law, guaranteeing all Americans up to 12 weeks of paid leave at 66 percent of their regular income, funded by employee contributions.

California, New Jersey and Rhode Island have passed similar laws — and currently, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Washington and Oregon show promise of joining them.

Meanwhile, because Hawaii families have no access to paid leave unless their employers choose to provide it, nearly 42 percent of private sector workers lack access to a single day of paid leave from work. This is significant in a state where more than 240,000 employees currently serve as primary caregivers to a family mem-ber, and where by 2020, an estimated 40 percent of the workforce will be providing care for older parents.

It’s not too late for Hawaii to help lead this movement. In one of the country’s most expensive states for families with one of the lowest unemployment rates, paid-leave legislation is in the best interests of our families and the economy.

And in a state where ohana means more than just family, but extends to our broader community, it is time to show that Hawaii values the work of caring for all of our keiki and kupuna.

Cathy Betts is executive director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; Shay Chan Hodges is the Maui-based author of “Lean On and Lead, Mothering and Work in the 21st Century Economy.”