growingfamilybenefits.com<\/a>, coverage for \u201cchildbirth recovery\u201d comes with employer-provided plans (even if they\u2019re fully employee-paid) but not with individually-purchased policies, which only provide benefits in the case of pregnancy complications (e.g., being placed on bed rest). \u00a0And this restriction makes sense \u2013 there would be substantial anti-selection issues otherwise, if women waited until they planned to conceive to purchase a policy, then dropped it immediately after using the 6 \u2013 8 week benefit, then re-applied just before planning the next pregnancy.<\/p>\nWhat about \u201cself-insuring\u201d \u2014 that is, saving up to cover expenses during the leave?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s great, in principle. \u00a0In practice, we know that too many working- and middle-class families simply don\u2019t have this sort of savings cushion. \u00a0After all, for a two-child family, we\u2019re not just talking about building a 3-months-of-income fund by the time you reach 25 or 30 or whatever age you\u2019d have your first baby at, even in the increasingly-idealized love+marriage+baby carriage order, but replenishing that fund for baby number two. \u00a0And, much as, in principle, it ought to be perfectly do-able to live on just one spouse\u2019s income, when, after all, if mom decides to stay at home, that\u2019s exactly what they\u2019d be doing, it\u2019s just as true that for many people the transition to a substantially reduced income isn\u2019t something that they\u2019re capable of managing (though, to be sure, after any such leave runs out, the new family needs to figure out how to manage daycare bills, unless they\u2019ve got a willing, free family member, or can cleverly juggle schedules). \u00a0Call it paternalism if you want, but it\u2019s a pragmatic recognition of how people behave. \u00a0And if you consider other Big Expenses for which one is expected to save \u2014 kids\u2019 college and retirement, primarily \u2014 the savings horizon is a lot longer.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, the notion that you have to have all your ducks lined up in a row, including a substantial financial cushion, before you can begin to contemplate having children, is harming families and harming society. \u00a0Sure, there are plenty of families who don\u2019t take this approach \u2014 either because their pregnancies are unplanned, or because they are in fact either frugal (that was us, with a satisfactory paycheck besides), or are willing to just manage one way or the other, or, at the bottom end of the income scale, are receiving benefits that are bumped up on a per-kid basis anyway. \u00a0But among many middle- and upper middle-class women, there is definitely now the notion that you need to get your career very well established, have enough promotions that you\u2019ll be missed while on your leave, and only then can you consider having a baby, or two at the outside most.<\/p>\n
Which leaves us with the Social Insurance model: \u00a0some sort of pay replacement for a fixed number of weeks or months to care for a newborn or newly-placed child, funded via a payroll tax. \u00a0Should it be 100% of pay? \u00a0Probably not \u2014 you are saving money, after all, relative to your post-return-to-work expenses by the fact that you don\u2019t need childcare for that baby. \u00a0Should it be available to both mothers and fathers? \u00a0It probably has to be, in the year 2017, if it\u2019s a matter of caring for a newborn rather than the physical recovery from childbirth. \u00a0Should it be available for other \u201cgood reasons\u201d such as caring for an elderly parent or a sick or disabled, but not newborn, child? \u00a0Probably not \u2013 those are lovely benefits to have, but they don\u2019t make sense as a government program, with the complexity of verifying the time off, administering small payments, and the like. \u00a0How long should it last? \u00a0Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 \u2013 12 weeks, up until that point that it\u2019s considered acceptable for a child to start daycare.<\/p>\n
A bigger question: \u00a0should it be contingent on\u00a0the parent ceasing to work and then returning afterwards, or should it be, effectively, a payment to all new parents as a percentage of\u00a0family income? \u00a0After all, having the state pay 8 \u2013 12 weeks of pay at a 70% rate is the equivalent of paying between 10 \u2013 15% of annual pay, as a lump sum.<\/p>\n
And that is a more intriguing question: \u00a0does a 10 \u2013 15% of pay \u201cbaby bonus\u201d make sense if it\u2019s thought of as covering parental leave?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Image: \u00a0from flickr. \u00a0from https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/92334668@N07\/11368402995<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The\u00a0AEI-Brookings Working Group on Paid Family Leave has come up with a family leave proposal, and I\u2019ve been meaning to blog about it for a while \u2014 the trouble is that it involve reading a lengthy report, which I just haven\u2019t managed to do yet. \u00a0So as a shortcut I\u2019ve scrolled down to the key […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":3702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[450],"tags":[367],"class_list":["post-6671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actuarial","tag-parental-leave"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n