SPRINGFIELD – State Representative Peter Breen (R-Lombard) is urging Congress to take swift action to establish a no-cost federal paid parental leave benefit, to ensure new moms and dads the opportunity to bond with their new babies for the first few months after birth.
“Parents need time with their new babies, and we can make that possible for every mom and dad in the country with this no-cost social security proposal,” said Breen.
Breen’s HR 798 would adopt a model recently proposed by the Independent Women’s Forum to provide for parental leave at no cost to employers or to the federal government. The proposal would allow new parents a completely voluntary option to collect Social Security benefits early, for twelve weeks, in exchange for delaying the collection of those Social Security benefits by a much smaller period, approximately six weeks, at retirement age. It is envisioned that the new benefits would be offered in addition to any existing employer-paid parental leave policies.
“Today, approximately 60% of new parents in the United Sates lack access to paid parental leave. The main impediment to the implementation of a federal paid parental leave policy has been cost, and this proposal would have a zero net cost associated with it," Breen said. "The length of the deferment of Social Security benefits would be calculated to offset the cost of providing the parental benefit. Preliminary estimates suggest that in order to provide 12 weeks of paid parental leave, new parents would only need to defer their benefits upon retirement by six weeks.”
When asked if his proposal could be seen to be the first step towards government mandated paid family leave and whether the proposal would cost businesses that would be forced to hire and train temporaries to fill in those taking parental leave for an extended length of time, Breen said since parents will be using their own Social Security benefits, there would be no tax increase.
"This proposal is a truly conservative approach to parental leave, allowing parents the ability to use their own Social Security benefits as they see fit, without increasing taxes and without putting any new mandates on employers," Breen said.
"This proposal is entirely pro-business, because it shows, yet again, that we don't need more government mandates on job-creators to provide benefits to working people. Because this program is an entirely optional benefit for an employee, fully funded through our existing Social Security program, there are no additional costs–not one penny–on our small businesses.
"If anything," Breen said, "the positive economic, social, and health effects of increased parental involvement in children's lives will improve every aspect of our society, including our business and jobs climate.
In his statement, he did not address the costs of businesses filling vacancies while staff takes time off.
According to Breen, the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not mandate or subsidize some form of paid parental leave.
“Studies from McGill University and the University of California in Los Angeles show that paid parental leave is associated with lower infant mortality rates, increased childhood vaccination rates, high school graduation rates, and higher average lifetime earnings for the child,” Breen added.
“The Social Security Administration already administers programs under which workers may choose to defer their benefits, so this program could be readily administrated by existing infrastructure. This is a no-cost solution that would provide priceless time between baby and parents during those important first months after birth.”
