Paid Family Leave

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, for many decades the American people have heard that their elected officials and political hopefuls taught family values, but right now we need more than talk.

We need Members of Congress to step up to the plate to help working families.

Our country has fallen well behind the rest of the world when it comes to paid family leave. We are the only developed country in the world that does not mandate paid medical leave for workers. Think about that. The most industrialized and successful country in the history of the world mandates less paid and protected family leave than Malta, Slovakia, and Estonia. What does this mean for working American families? It means parents can't stay home and take care of their sick children. It means mothers need to rush back to work after giving birth to a child. It means working Americans have to choose between a paycheck and their family responsibilities.

Right now the United States provides paid family leave for only 12 percent of its private sector workforce. We are one of three nations without paid maternity leave: Papua New Guinea, Oman, and the United States. Those are the three nations without paid maternity leave: America, Oman, and New Guinea. That is really unfair, and it doesn't qualify as family values.

I was pleased recently to learn that the new Speaker, Paul Ryan, told House Republicans his family is off-limits. I don't know if that means Friday afternoons or just Saturday and Sunday. He wants to spend more time with his family, and I applaud him for that. There were some people who mocked Congressman Ryan for that, and they are wrong. All parents should work to protect that time with their families.

Here is the problem. For millions of Americans, the concept of work-family life balance is nothing more than a fantasy. For far too many Americans, more time at work and less time with family is the only way to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Still, these hard-working families are falling behind. An unpaid day off is out of the question.

Contrast that with the Senate. The Republican-controlled Senate doesn't work 5-day weeks. Yet millions of Americans can't get a day off when a loved one dies or a child is confined to a hospital bed. If you play baseball, the average salary is more than $2 million a year. If your wife has a baby, you take off. But they make millions of dollars a year. Middle-class Americans don't make that.

While Speaker Ryan insists on a family-friendly work schedule for himself, he is blocking legislation that would give the bare minimum in paid leave for hard-working Americans. Before we worry about ourselves, we should worry about the millions of Americans who can't get a day off work to care for a sick child--can't get a half day off work. That would be real family values.

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