How to Strengthen the Family

President Bush can provide a measure of compassion for working mothers and fathers by signing family-leave legislation that would allow employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn, newly adopted child or seriously ill child, spouse or elderly parent.

The Family and Medical Leave Act would permit workers to take the time off with health insurance intact, and return to the same or equivalent job. Only workers at companies with 50 or more employees would qualify. That restriction limits the benefit to 5% of the nation’s employers, but it protects small businesses from the additional cost.

Cost fuels the opposition. Continuing health insurance would take the biggest toll on businesses, according to the Government Accounting Office, which puts the annual cost at $188 million.

Business leaders cite higher estimates that are calculated on the cost if every eligible employee took the maximum leave. That is unrealistic. How many workers can afford to take three months off without pay for maternity leave or a family emergency? Most employees would take substantially shorter leaves.

President Bush has threatened to veto the bill. He prefers a voluntary policy, as he stated during his presidential campaign. The volunteers, however, have been few and far between.

Bush is the father of five children who grew up in a time when mothers who stayed at home were the rule, not the exception. Now the majority of women with children work outside of the home. Working women are typically the primary care-takers for their children, spouses and elderly parents. They need the option of taking time off without losing their jobs.

Fathers, too, would benefit. The law would change the corporate culture to make it easier for men to take time off to care for a new baby or a seriously ill wife.

Family leave would eliminate no-win choices for parents. Workers now sometimes have to choose between taking care of a seriously ill child or keeping a job. No longer, if the President doesn’t veto this bill.