A groundbreaking new paid family leave law went into effect in California on July 1, making it easier for employees to spend time with new infants or to care for ailing relatives. The family leave law provides employees with up to 55 percent of their regular pay for up to six weeks of leave time. This law, a first in this country in terms of national social policy, will cover 13 million Californians, or nearly one-tenth of the American workforce. The United States is one of only five countries that does not offer paid leave for new mothers, out of a study of 169 countries done by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), according to The Washington Times.
At least 300,000 employees will take advantage of the new work benefits this upcoming year, and the vast majority of the 2,000 people who have already applied to the paid family leave program will be doing so to care for a newborn, according to the Oakland Tribune. Proponents of the law applaud the measure for acknowledging the changing face of the nuclear family, including increasing numbers of single-parent homes. “Mom isn’t home baking chocolate chip cookies waiting for the school bus to come home anymore. Workplaces have to reflect the lives we live,” said Netsy Firestein, director of the Labor Project for Working Families at University of California, Berkeley, according to the Oakland Tribune. The HSPH study emphasizes the health benefits that both newborns and new mothers experience when at least one parent is able to take some leave from work.
Paid leave is funded through a 0.08 percent payroll tax that amounts to a mere $4 a month on average, according to the Los Angeles Times. While the tax brings in about $129.3 million, the paid family leave program is estimated to cost between $300 million to $400 million per year. The paid leave program, however, neglects to provide job protection and return rights for employees who elect to take leave, the Oakland Tribune reports. Additionally, although California employees have been paying taxes toward this law since the beginning of January, only 22 percent of Californians were even aware that the law existed. Women of child-bearing age were among the most likely not to know about the new law, according to Ruth Milkman, director of the University of California-Los Angeles Institute of Industrial Relations, according to KaiserNetwork.org.
5/22/2013 Immigration Reform Bill Advances In Senate - Last night, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a sweeping immigration reform bill in a bipartisan vote of 13 to 5. . . .
5/22/2013 Afghan Women Arrested for 'Moral Crimes' Increases 50% - A new report by the Human Rights Watch shows that in the past 18 months the number of women in Afghanistan incarcerated for 'moral crimes' has increased from 400 to 600, a 50% growth.
Many of the women imprisoned for moral crimes were arrested running away from forced or abusive marriages and families, even though there is no law against leaving. . . .
5/22/2013 Army Commander Suspended for Adultery Amid Wave of Sexual Assaults - On Tuesday, Brigadier General Bryan T Roberts was suspended from his position as commander of the Fort Jackson, South Carolina training camp which trains approximately 60% of incoming female recruits pending an investigation into allegations of adultery.
Roberts was suspended following allegations of "adultery and a physical altercation." Colonel Christian Kubik, an Army spokesperson for the Training and Doctrine Command, told reporters "We don't have any evidence of any sexual assault. . . .
