This past Monday President Obama hosted a summit to discuss how the United States can improve its policies towards families, especially working mothers. At the top of the list of subjects was paid maternity leave for moms.
“Only three countries in the world report that they don’t offer paid maternity leave — three — and the United States is one of them,” Obama said during his weekly address. “It’s time to change that. A few states have acted on their own to give workers paid family leave, but this should be available to everyone, because all Americans should be able to afford to care for a family member in need.”
The summit is being held to help attract more women voters during this midterm election year.
Some states already have in place a system to pay women when they take off from work after childbirth, including New Jersey, Rhode Island and California. At issue for a federal program is how to fund it, especially since in 2008 Obama promised not to raise taxes on families earning under $250,000 per year. Obama has also refrained from supporting legislation to establish a payroll tax to fund a maternity leave program.
“Cost is an issue for any federal program and we need to make sure we do this in a way where we are not raising taxes on middle-class families,” Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett said. “But we also know what a good investment in our workforce it would be if they had paid leave, and that investment will pay great returns.”
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