Paid family leave would be good for business

What has become clear over time as we have survived crisis after crisis is that no individual, no matter how talented or diverse their background, can succeed without a support structure. And that support structure starts with the family, with those who care for and nurture us.

Very few places celebrate and value extended family quite the way we do, and see them as integral to the fabric of society. It is both cultural and driven by necessity, given our extremely high cost of living. But working families are still struggling. By 2020, about 40 percent of the workforce will be caring for aging parents. How will they cope?

I am blessed to work for an employer that offers new birth mothers up to 20 weeks of paid leave. Fathers, partners, adoptive parents get 12 weeks paid leave. Sure, big IBM can do this, you say. Yes — and that is why creating a state-run family leave insurance plan is good because it allows small businesses to offer a benefit that might otherwise be unaffordable.

Out of 193 countries in the United Nations, the United States has the dubious distinction of being among the handful that do not guarantee paid family leave for its citizens. Five states — California, Rhode Island, Washington, New Jersey and New York, as well as the District of Columbia — have taken steps to provide such leave.

So, what does Hawaii say to families, to children, to parents, to the elderly? That they must choose between a paid day of work over caring for a sick child or parent? That they must send sick children to school because they can’t afford to have them stay home?

Senate Bill 2990 and House Bill 2598 both provide Hawaii with a chance to show leadership and establish paid family leave for all.

But there are some who oppose these measures, ostensibly in the name of business. The Hawaii Chamber of Commerce’s recent email blast said this:

“Encourage our legislators [to] oppose paid family leave bills … We realize that given our low unemployment percentage, businesses already need to stay competitive to attract and keep the best talent, with many offering versions of family leave, as well as other generous employee benefits. Mandating a state system would be burdensome and create additional administrative costs for businesses.”

It’s worth pointing out that in 2002, the California Chamber of Commerce argued that paid family leave would be a “job killer,” that small businesses would suffer from prolonged worker absences, that there would be fraud and abuse, that California businesses would become less competitive. The National Chamber Review reports that “none of those fears materialized.”

What is really burdensome for thousands of Hawaii’s working families is the lack of access to a single day of paid family leave. Research shows that supporting employees with paid family leave to care for children and elderly parents results in happier, more productive employees, not less. Offering paid family leave should be seen as a competitive advantage to attract and retain talent in Hawaii, a state that already has significant challenges doing just that. Even the conservative American Enterprise Institute has testified in favor of paid leave through a social insurance approach because this makes it affordable for firms and employees.

We should all welcome SB 2990/HB 2598, which would establish a paid family leave program to take effect in June 2020. The bills call for an implementation board to work out how this can be done in a way that is feasible for all.

As the Aloha State, and one that values ohana, I don’t see how we can not support these measures.

Zubin Menon is IBM’s client executive in Hawaii.