Op-Ed: For Father’s Day Honor Dads With What They Really Need – Paid Family Leave

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SARAH MARTINEZ photo. Her website is https://iamsarahv.com/

Clifton West Jr. and his son Jayden

By CLIFTON WEST Jr.

Father’s Day has taken on a whole new significance for me this year as I hold my newborn son Jayden in my arms. The first eight weeks of his life have been a blur, filled with love, and diapers, and an unusual sleep schedule, but I’ve been able to be there experiencing it because my employer offers paid parental leave.

I never gave much thought to what our company policy for family and medical leave was until my wife and I got the news that we were expecting. Turns out last year, due to employee feedback, my company benefits package was expanded to include ten weeks of parental leave. I am benefiting from the advocacy of parents who came before me.

I am also benefiting from having an employer who knows what it takes to compete for the best talent. In a recent survey 77% of millennial men said they have or would be willing to change jobs to better manage fatherhood with their career responsibilities. I am grateful I haven’t had to choose between my job and being able to be present to build a strong foundation for my son and family over these last few weeks. 

Most Dads aren’t so fortunate. More than three quarters of father’s take five or fewer days away from work when they bring a newborn baby home. To do otherwise would jeopardize their financial security because only a small fraction of companies in the United States, less than 13%, offer paid parental leave to their male employees.

These inequalities of having access to paid parental leave is amongst racial lines as well. Over the past year, I’ve become a strong advocate for racial justice and the advancement for people of color. It’s unacceptable to me that compared to white workers, workers of Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic descent were from 66% to 100% unlikely to have access to paid parental leave. 

This is all in spite of overwhelming evidence that families are better off when Dad’s have access to paid parental leave. It’s correlated with physical and mental health benefits, for newborn children and for both parents. Paid leave for men leads to greater financial security for the whole family and makes it easier for mothers to return to the workforce. Father’s who take more than two weeks of parental leave are also more likely to share an equitable division of household responsibilities, and probably not coincidentally, are more likely to enjoy stable marriages. 

To truly honor Father’s Day we should forgo the ties, coffee mugs, and greeting cards and instead, expand access to paid parental leave. 

New Hampshire families would already have this benefit if Governor Sununu hadn’t vetoed bills two years in a row that would have ensured every Dad, and every other working person in the state, had access to paid leave to care for a newborn, or for their spouse, or an aging parent. Given Sununu’s opposition to paid leave we aren’t likely to see any progress on state policy to ensure everyone has paid leave this year but there is an opportunity to pass paid leave for all at the federal level. 

President Biden has made paid family and medical leave a central part of his American Families Plan. President Biden’s plan would ensure working people receive partial wage replacement to take time to bond with a new child, care for a seriously ill loved one, deal with a loved one’s military deployment, find safety from sexual assault or domestic violence, heal from their own serious illness, or take time to deal with the death of a loved one. This is a common sense policy to ensure working people can make ends meet and be there for their families when they need to be.

So, this Father’s Day, join me in calling on Congress to pass the American Families Act so that as we recover from the pandemic we will build back better and ensure that moving forward all families have the ability to take time to care for themselves and their loved ones. 

Happy Father’s Day to all the other Dads out there!

SARAH MARTINEZ photo. Her website is https://iamsarahv.com/

Clifton West Jr. is the Vice President of Public Affairs at the NH Young Democrats and Executive Director of Black Lives Matter Seacoast

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