Charlottesville, Virginia, May 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (Charlottesville, VA)—The COVID-19 pandemic has led communities to shutter businesses, schools, and public places, requiring families to undertake multiple roles at once: caregivers, educators, and workers. As our society relies on the health and capability of families right now, policymakers should consider future measures that strengthen families, particularly in their childrearing roles.
Released today, A Child-Focused Paid Parental Leave Policy for the U.S., a new policy brief by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), is authored by IFS research fellow Lyman Stone, and Center for Public Justice resident fellow and director of the Family Values Initiative, Rachel Anderson. In the policy brief, Anderson and Stone:
- Call for a paid family leave proposal that is primarily designed with child welfare in mind, rather than parental labor outcomes or fertility achievement.
- Suggest a flat cash benefit valued at approximately $600 per week per newborn or adopted child, which is delivered in monthly checks with 18 weeks of guaranteed paid leave available with the birth of each child.
- Find that the benefits of this proposed policy include: increased parental care, a decline in infant and maternal illness, hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality, and modest improvements in various measures of child well-being.
"A Child-Focused Paid Parental Leave Policy lays out a blueprint for a parental leave program that actually works: for families, for employers, and most especially for kids," says report co-author Lyman Stone. "The debate about parental leave in America has borrowed too much from the inflexible, work-based models of leave used in Europe and elsewhere, and hasn't focused enough on how to maximize benefits to the people who need them the most: children, who deserve time with their parents."
Download the full policy brief by Lyman Stone and Rachel Anderson or read a summary. Stone and Anderson are both available for interviews.
Contact:
Alysse ElHage
Institute for Family Studies
alysse@ifstudies.org