The White House is giving the city of Atlanta a pat on its back for giving employees paid family leave, as top aide Valerie Jarrett meets with Mayor Kasim Reed and community leaders in Atlanta on Tuesday.
The Obama administration has to count on such individual efforts to advance its agenda for working families. President Barack Obama expanded paid leave for federal employees by executive order, but he has not yet found a way to mandate more without Congress, Jarrett told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We will continue to look, but so far what we’ve come up with is what we can do for federal workers,” Jarrett said. “But we can’t do more than that without legislative action.”
Republicans in Congress have not signed onto a bill to require paid sick leave, pushing instead a more business-friendly measure to allow employees to store up overtime hours worked to use as leave.
Federal law requires most employers to provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a new child, sick family member or serious illness. (There are expanded rules for military veterans.)
In those instances the city of Atlanta this year decided to provide six weeks of paid leave for a primary caregiver — male or female — and two weeks of paid leave for a nonprimary caregiver, at an estimated cost of $1.4 million.
State government, by comparison, does not provide paid family leave for its employees, said Zach Johnson of the Georgia Department of Administrative Services.
Jarrett’s visit is part of a nationwide effort along with Labor Secretary Thomas Perez to promote state and local governments, and businesses that are giving working families more flexibility. Jarrett said their travels have so far included California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
“With increased global competition, it’s more important than ever that we in the United States follow the best practices,” Jarrett said.
“So traveling around the country and highlighting those best practices at the local level we hope will encourage more companies in the private sector and more units of government to recognize how good for families, how good for business and how good for the economy this is.”
State legislators, advocates and representatives from Delta Air Lines, Equifax and other big local employers are slated to participate in a round-table discussion Tuesday at City Hall.
According to a 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, 61 percent of all workers had paid sick time and just 12 percent had paid family leave.
Obama this year gave federal employees the option of taking an advance of six weeks of paid sick time in the case of a new birth or adoption, as well as other policies designed to promote more flexibility.
In doing so, Obama promoted the Healthy Families Act, which would mandate employers provide up to seven days of paid sick time per year.
No Republicans have co-sponsored companion House and Senate bills, and the GOP controls both chambers. But the Senate did pass a nonbinding budget amendment this year supporting more paid sick days.
The National Federation of Independent Business has lobbied strongly against such proposals at the local and national level, saying small businesses cannot afford them. In 2011 NFIB estimated the Healthy Families Act, if passed, would destroy 570,000 private-sector jobs over a four-year period.
NFIB spokesman Jack Mozloom used the example of a landscaping company that cannot do as much work and cannot make as much money without all its employees showing up.
“It’s a real cost on real small businesses,” Mozloom said. “And business owners will respond predictably to the mandate. They will make cuts elsewhere, and the employees are very likely to pay.”
Republicans, including Georgia Sens. Johnny Isakson and David Perdue, have signed onto the Working Families Flexibility Act, which would allow employees to exchange overtime hours for more time off.
About the Author
