The Allegheny County Health Department\u2019s parental leave proposal has inspired more than 1,400 residents to provide formal feedback. The policy would require businesses to pay for employees to take up to 18 weeks of paid leave when they have a child or adopt.<\/p>\n
Paid parental leave has become the de facto policy of 14 of the most liberal states of America, including California and New York. But that leaves out parents in states that are conservative or divided, like Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am tired of waiting for a federal action that never seems to come,\u201d County Executive Sara Innamorato said at a public hearing in June. \u201cAnd I\u2019m tired of waiting for state action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allegheny County would be the first county in the country to pass its own paid leave policy. And it would stand alone in the United States for its generosity and for how much responsibility falls on businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn its current form, we believe the proposed paid parental leave requirement is a significant outlier,\u201d Stefani Pashman, the CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, wrote in a letter explaining why members of that private sector group oppose the new policy.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source spoke to four of the country\u2019s most widely published experts on parental leave. Those experts say that many of the health issues raised here have been studied elsewhere, but the uniqueness of the Health Department\u2019s proposal makes it more difficult to draw definitive conclusions about its economic impact.<\/p>\n
Why did the Health Department propose a generous parental leave policy? Nationally, parental leave policies have become increasingly popular<\/a> in part because they make it easier for women to attend doctor appointments and breastfeed, both of which are central goals for the Health Department\u2019s strategic plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another department goal is to reduce deaths of Black babies, which occur three to five times as often as deaths of white babies. And disadvantaged mothers are more likely to actually go on leave when there is a policy that provides financial assistance while they are at home, researchers say.<\/p>\n \u201cIt provides time to establish breastfeeding, attend appointments, develop sleep routines, and create a secure bond that is critical for development,\u201d said nurse Lillian Miller.<\/p>\n The department\u2019s leaders proposed a policy based largely on its health goals after doing a study that found only about two in five birth parents had access to paid leave. How generous is Allegheny County\u2019s proposal? While paid leave laws are structured in a variety of ways, the main tenets of the county\u2019s proposal would be more generous than the policies enacted by 14 other states and Washington D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most of these states offer 12 weeks of leave rather than 18 weeks. And these states typically pay around 70-90% of a parent\u2019s wages and cap the total payout between about $900 per week in the least generous state, Delaware, and about $1,600 per week in the most generous state, Oregon<\/a>. Allegheny County\u2019s policy includes no specific cap<\/a>.<\/p>\n Paid parental leave is mandated in more than 180 countries<\/a>, including all 55 high-income countries besides the United States<\/a>. About a quarter of all countries offer 18 weeks or more and more than half of all wealthy countries do.<\/p>\n Is there research to support 18 weeks of leave? The 12-week standard in the United States became established in 1993 as part of a political compromise. One of the most prominent Harvard doctors to testify at the time was recommending 18 weeks. The International Labour Organization<\/a>, an agency that sets worker standards for the United Nations, recommends 18 weeks of leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the biggest benefits of extending parental leave from 12 to 18 weeks, according to several researchers, is that it would provide additional time for mothers to breastfeed. \u201cThere\u2019s a pretty strong correlation between returning to work and stopping breastfeeding,\u201d\u00a0 said Waldfogel, of Columbia. Breastfeeding can improve a baby\u2019s immune system and reduce sickness through six months of age.<\/p>\n Is leave only available for the parent who gives birth? Most states that offer paid parental leave offer it for both parents as well as adopting parents \u2013 the same as Allegheny County has proposed. Some of these states offer additional health leave for new mothers.\u00a0<\/p>\n In some other countries, such as the United Kingdom, birthing mothers have traditionally received much longer leaves than the parent who didn\u2019t give birth. Gayle Kaufman, a Davidson College sociology professor who studied its system, found that its policies disproportionately forced mothers out of the workplace. \u201cLong term, that sets up a workplace where women are going to be judged based on whether they might have a child and whether they might take time off,\u201d Kaufman said. (The UK now allows both parents to share their year of leave<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u201cSo many dads get a bad rap for not being present. So, let\u2019s actually make it so that they can be around,\u201d Leigh Carroll, a Pittsburgh resident, said at the June 2 hearing.<\/p>\n More research has been done about the health and economic impact on mothers than on fathers, experts say<\/a>. But there is some evidence that, in addition to improving how involved fathers are at home, having a second parent at home improves the mental health of the birth mother<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHaving a father at home in the weeks after childbirth improves maternal postpartum mental health and she\u2019s more able to seek care for physical health issues,\u201d said Maya Rossin-Slater, a health professor at Stanford University.<\/p>\n Who would pay? And how unusual is this? Nearly every state that has passed a policy pays for it with a payroll tax that splits the burden across taxpayers. Allegheny County, however, doesn\u2019t collect income tax. Instead, the county would require that businesses pay for leaves on their own.<\/p>\n A study of California\u2019s paid leave program suggests that about two-thirds<\/a> of the county\u2019s businesses will have to pay the employee\u2019s salary while they are on leave. The other third would also have to pay for a replacement.<\/p>\n There is a lot more research showing the health benefits of parental leave policies than there is research showing its economic impacts. \u201cIt\u2019s harder to do this work with businesses,\u201d said Stanford\u2019s Rossin-Slater. \u201cAnd so we just have less evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Washington, D.C., is the only jurisdiction where businesses shoulder all of the cost \u2013 by paying a 0.75% tax<\/a>, which also covers personal and family medical leaves.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a tax but it feels scared to call itself a tax,\u201d said Armin Samii, a small business owner.<\/p>\n Making businesses pay isn\u2019t ideal, according to some international bodies. The International Labour Organization recommends paying for parental leave with social insurance or public funds, rather than directly requiring it from businesses, saying funding can \u201ccombat potential discrimination against women in the labor market<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Less than a quarter of the countries in the world require businesses to pay for parental leave directly, according to one study<\/a>, and the impact of this approach is not well studied, according to Rossin-Slater. \u201cThere\u2019s less evidence one way or another whether that\u2019s a big burden.\u201d<\/p>\n How much will this policy actually cost? Most states have been able to cover the costs of their parental leave policies with a payroll tax of less than 1%. Since payroll costs make up only a portion of a business\u2019 total revenue, many businesses would see their costs increase by less than 1%.<\/p>\n So an average business should expect its costs to rise by less than 1%, with variation based on the number of employees who go on leave and whether the company has to hire replacements. In the long term the costs are less clear: Several studies have shown that companies have to spend less on hiring new workers because employees with parental leave stay in their jobs longer.<\/p>\n Experts said there has been little evidence that parental leave policies have big economic consequences. Although the county proposal is more generous than what\u2019s offered in some states, other countries have enacted more generous policies without major economic consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we can say that this is super burdensome for small businesses because I don\u2019t think there\u2019s good evidence of that,\u201d said researcher Rossin-Slater. \u201cFrom the evidence that we do have, it says it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n Will the policy be more expensive for some businesses than others? Some businesses will face little or no direct costs, because they will be able to shift their work assignments to cover their employees on leave. In states with leave policies where this has been studied, about two-thirds of businesses said they were able to shift work assignments without hiring a replacement.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is simply no flexibility within the current Medicaid funding structure to absorb an additional 18 weeks of paid leave and more sick time without dedicated financial support,\u201d said Matt Barbee, director of regulatory affairs for Pennsylvania Home Care Association.<\/p>\n Dirk Doebler, the founder of Parento, which sells private parental leave insurance, offers premiums based on the number of workers at a business, their salaries, the age and gender of employees and how much leave they offer<\/a>. Allegheny County companies could buy private insurance to cap their annual parental leave costs, though the premiums could exceed what they would otherwise pay in years when few employees take leave. Businesses could then raise their prices or decrease their wages enough to offset the cost of the insurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n What about small businesses? The county\u2019s proposal does not provide an exemption for small businesses. But most states either provide a discount or exempt small businesses with fewer than 10 to 25 employees entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cThe outcomes for businesses and families is a boogeyman. They are not going to suffer. Workers deserve as much protection as businesses large or small,\u201d said Amy Raslevich, who has a PhD. in public health from Pitt.<\/p>\n Waldfogel, of Columbia, said that she and her colleagues sent surveys to businesses of all sizes in New York and Pennsylvania, both before and after New York\u2019s paid leave policy went into effect. She found<\/a> that employers in New York were able to manage absences just as well as those in Pennsylvania after the policy went into effect and employees performed just as well, if not better. This result is consistent with several other studies, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of what kind of policy exists, events happen and people have to go out on leave,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you only have a few employees, it\u2019s challenging to cover the work. \u2026 What helps when you have these kinds of policies is that it seems like things are a little bit more out in the open and they\u2019re more formalized.\u201d<\/p>\n Have businesses fled \u2014 or warmed up \u2014 in places where paid leave is mandated? The business community has raised objections to most of the parental leave policies that are already in place in the U.S., according to researchers. But after the policies have passed, the fervor of their opposition seems to die down, according to studies of how businesses responded in California and New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n The studies, which have largely been based on surveys of hundreds of businesses before and after the policies went in place, suggest that most businesses believe the policies had no impact or a positive impact.<\/p>\n Kaufman, who wrote a book comparing parental leave policies in Britain, the U.S. and Norway<\/a>, said familiarity typically leads to increased support. \u201cI think the more people who get to experience it and see it working,\u201d she said, \u201cthe more likely there would be that push to get it at state and national levels.\u201d<\/p>\n Will there be a surge of businesses leaving the county? There is no evidence that businesses have moved across state lines to avoid parental leave policies, according to experts.<\/p>\n \u201cGenerally speaking, moving is quite costly,\u201d said researcher Rossin-Slater. \u201c And so this does not seem like something that is sort of of the order of magnitude that would lead a business to choose to leave or move. But I don\u2019t think we have fantastic evidence one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor large corporations with extensive resources, that may be manageable. For small businesses and nonprofits that make up a majority of our membership, it is not,\u201d said Matt Napper, chair North Side\/Shore Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n In her comments to the Health Department, Pashman, the Allegheny Conference\u2019s CEO, pointed out that much of the research on parental leave policies is from states that are less generous, available to fewer people and supported by a different funding mechanism.\u00a0<\/p>\n She believes this makes the county\u2019s proposal riskier than what the research implies. \u201cThis combination of benefit level, scope, and funding structure is highly atypical and positions Allegheny County as an outlier among peer regions,\u201d Pashman wrote.<\/p>\n Do parental leave policies help some families more than others? The people with the most generous paid leave policies right now tend to work for some of the biggest and most influential companies in the country, according to researcher Kaufman. But even some of the country\u2019s biggest companies don\u2019t offer generous leave packages, she said, and that\u2019s why public policies are important. Without them, \u201cit\u2019s completely up to who you work for.\u201d<\/p>\n Rossin-Slater said there are studies that show government-funded paid leave programs can have a bigger impact on women who are unmarried, have less education or are minorities. These improvements can have lasting effects. One study in Norway showed a small decrease in high school drop-out rates and an increase in future earnings for the children of parents who took parental leave.<\/p>\n \u201cNo parent should have to choose between healing after childbirth and paying their bills,\u201d said\u00a0Kieashia DeShawn, a birth doula.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people that benefit the most from these types of policies are usually not the ones that are in the rooms deciding them,\u201d Rossin-Slater said.<\/p>\n Even places that have passed generous paid leave policies don\u2019t always see a benefit for disadvantaged groups. One study in San Francisco found that, in the years after a new policy passed, more advantaged groups saw bigger health improvements<\/a> because they were better informed about the policies and more likely to be eligible<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Is the proposal likely to change before it is passed? Other jurisdictions have found ways to ease the transition and reduce the economic effects of mandatory paid leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n New York offered 50% of a parent\u2019s wage for eight weeks in 2018 and slowly increased that rate until parents were eligible for 67% of their wages over 12 weeks by 2021. Several states offer low-wage parents up to 90% of their wages while on leave, but offer 50% or 70% to women who earn more. Researchers say this could decrease the overall cost of the program while still preserving some of the desired health impacts.<\/p>\n Health Department officials have already signaled a willingness to adjust the proposal to overcome economic and political challenges. The department could make changes to the policy before it returns for a vote by the Board of Health, which could happen as soon as September.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the public health department,\u201d said Dr. Iulia Vann, the department\u2019s director. \u201cWhat we want to have very tightly put together is the real public health implications of this policy before it goes to the Board of Health.\u201d<\/p>\n