FL Gets Failing Grade for Policies that Help Families
Posted August 15, 2016 08:05 am | Public News Service
Tallahassee, FL – For providing workplace policies that support families and children, a new report ranks Florida at the bottom among the 50 states.
The National Partnership for Women and Families gives Florida a D grade because the state has no requirements beyond the federal Family and Medical Leave Act that guarantees job protection or leave for new or expectant parents.
Sarah Fleisch Fink, director of workplace policy and
senior counsel with the National Partnership for Women
and Families, says supportive policies can go a long way
in predicting success in the lives of children.
"We know that new children coming into the world thrive
when parents can take time off after the birth or
adoption of that child, to bond and to provide the
important care that kids need," she states. "For women
to get important prenatal and postnatal care that they
need. For fathers to be able to bond and spend time with
new children."
In addition to Florida, the report notes 26 other states
have also done little or nothing to add such benefits as
paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave or
reasonable accommodations in the workplace for pregnant
or nursing women.
California is the only state that earned an A.
While California, New Jersey and Rhode Island have all
adopted some form of paid family leave, Fleisch Fink
says the poor level of support in so many states
indicates a need for national change.
"This patchwork of laws, state-by-state, is not
providing what expecting and new parents need," she
says. "And so, what we also think needs to happen, in
addition to state progress, is federal-level change."
The report notes that employers in states that have
adopted family leave policies have seen no negative
effects and, in many cases, increased productivity from
employees.
Image added by the Observer
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