The Paid Leave Fairy Tale

Why mandated paid family leave is bad for business and bad for most women.

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Most 2020 presidential candidates support government mandated paid family leave. That means government will order businesses to provide a certain amount of paid time off for new parents.

That sounds kind. Politicians and the media point out that only the U.S. and Papua New Guinea do not require paid time off for parents.

"It's disingenuous to say [that]" explains Patrice Lee Onwuka, a senior policy analyst at Independent Women's Forum.

Onwuka tells John Stossel that most full-time American workers already get paid leave. "About 17% of workers have paid parental leave … but you jump to 60, 70, 80 percent when you consider people have sick time off, overtime or all-encompassing personal time."

These benefits are voluntarily provided to even lower-level employees.    

"Chipotle workers, CVS workers, Walmart workers…," says Onwuka.

"Why would CVS and Walmart provide this voluntarily?" asks Stossel.

"For an employer to attract … good talent or retain their talent, they need to offer benefits that really resonate with workers," explains Onwuka. "Paid maternity and paternity leave is one of those benefits."

"Politicians are so arrogant," says Stossel, "that they now tell people that mandating leave for all employees will be 'good for business.'  Somehow they don't know that business knows better what's good for business."

In truth, says Stossel, mandated leave turns out to be "bad for business and not even good for most women." 

Onwuka points out, "If we look at how the rest of the world has provided very generous, mandated paid leave plans, we see that it actually has a negative impact on women."

Why would that be? Because mandatory leave makes companies fear hiring young women.  "If an employer has a young woman in front of him of child bearing age," say Onwuka, "he's thinking, okay, I have to provide paid time off. I have a potential other employee who's a male…"

A family leave mandate makes the man a safer bet.

"In California, the first state to mandate paid family leave, a study found women of childbearing age were more likely to be unemployed," explains Stossel.

Comparing Europe to America, Onwuka explains, "American women are twice as likely to be in senior level positions, managerial positions, then women in Europe … it's very much tied to these mandates around paid leave and paid time off."

[medic]

Govt motto: "If it ain't broke, we'll fix it till it is!!"

[shakesitoff]

If the government wants to help the people, stay out of our lives!!!

[loszhor]

I love how he calls her out at the end. This is why I love John Stossel.

[dirtcop]

Reagan said it best, the scariest words ever uttered, "I'm from the government and I am here to help."

[sd]

"Both parties are pushing government solutions" meaning both parties are trying to buy your vote at my expense.

[kaioken]

So the moral of the story is let the company and employee work it out and keep government the hell out of it.

[nemo]

"Politicians are so arrogant." Stossel said but I think he understated it. I was an employer for 21+ years and now that I've been retired for 19+ years and reflect back I realize there is just one job description, just one reason to hire anyone: What can an employee do to help me earn a living, make a profit, keep the business functioning? If an employee can't do that, the job will no longer exist.

[kevindouglas]

"I need votes and I'll SAY anything to get 'em".

[doom]

I have never seen that many people working checkout at Wal Mart.... those must be paid actors.

[samwroblewski]

I'd rather have the ability to withdraw all my social security and opt out of paying it altogether.

[melvinhume]

Well if you took 12 weeks off and my company ran just fine without you I would figure I don't need you

[dimitriosfreedom]

“Tap into” social security. It’s more like Raid social security today and let future generations deal with the aftermath of an empty well of retirement funds.

[mycommonsense]

Businesses have employees because they have jobs that need to be done. Want to have kids, great, but don't expect someone else to pay for it. EVERYTHING the government touches it makes worse. WAKE UP!!!

[chriscunningham]

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
~ Ronald Reagan.

[bleachchugtidy]

Finding a job while pregnant is so hard because even though I'm an extremely hard worker, no employer wants to give me leave and they think that I won't work as hard. If the government wants to make changes they need to help the employers and provide incentive.

[selfdo]

Helping #2 son move from Iowa to Nevada, while gassing up in Nebraska, saw a funny novelty "road sign"...it was titled "Terms of Employment"..under "personal days", the reply was, "Yes1 You get 104 of them A YEAR...they're called SATURDAY and SUNDAY!".


I like what old-timers in the Navy once said about marriage and family..."If the Navy wanted you to have a wife, you'd have been issued one at Great Lakes".

[pigyear]

Give me my social security contributions back now and I would be fine.

[ungerjs]

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

[coldwarrior]

Mandated leave becomes a tax on all businesses.

[OmegaTou]

"Were already 22 Trillion dollars in debt..."

It's scary when you can age a video based on how many Trillions were in the national debt. It's $28 Trillion now, and will be substantially higher when people read this in the future.