Newswise — It’s a reality that most Americans will face at one time or another: the necessity to suspend work to care for a new baby or an adopted child, an ailing spouse or a parent, or to receive medical treatment for themselves. Yet, “the United States is the only developed country in the world without legislation for paid leave,” says Lucy R. Ford, Ph.D., director of the Managing Human Capital program and professor of management at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
Ford, who has been quoted in the New York Times regarding changes in paid time off (PTO), believes that improved policies may eventually be a necessity to keep our nation competitive.
“There is extensive research that links paid family and medical leave to employee retention, satisfaction and productivity, and companies that can afford to run the analytics on these policies are often implementing them,” says Ford.
Currently, only three states have legislation requiring employers to offer paid family and medical leave – New Jersey, California and Rhode Island – but earlier this month legislation was introduced that, if passed, would grant up to 16 weeks of paid family and medical leave to eligible working residents of the District of Columbia. The Universal Paid Leave Act of 2015 would amend the D.C. Family Leave Act (which offered 16 unpaid weeks) and proposes the largest amount of paid family or medical leave mandated by law in any U.S.state.
A number of factors have caused this issue to resurface in the national media and on the political stage. Among them, this proposed act, and the surge of progressive, large-scale corporations like Virgin, Netflix and Microsoft making headlines with “generous” maternity, paternity, family and/or medical paid leave policies (ranging from 5 to 12 months).
“For companies that have already taken a flexible, human-capital centered approach, valuing their talent and showing concern for the retention of employees, I think we will continue to see these more generous paid leave policies emerge,” says Ford.
With some of the country’s most innovative and powerful companies leading this trend and seeing proven benefits to paid leave, will legislation still be necessary?
“Absolutely,” says Ford, who predicts sweeping changes can only be expected if federal legislation is passed.
Lucy R. Ford, Ph.D. is the director of Saint Joseph’s University’s managing human capital program and an assistant professor of management. Her areas of expertise include leadership development, team leadership, Human Resources, employee relations, human resource policy and legal issues, performance management, survey development and administration.
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