Politicians want to give you money for having kids. They should also consider giving you time.
My colleague Jamie Wilde notes that on the campaign trail, there’s bipartisan support for giving Americans more money for having children. That’s a useful incentive in a world where the financial burden of having kids can be a key impediment.
Beyond making it easier to provide for a child’s needs through tax breaks, it also helps to have the capacity to be there to care for them when they’re not feeling well.
And from my sample size of one niece I can confidently say that kids are sick All The Time. They say time is money. But you know what else time is? Time.
That’s where paid sick leave comes in. It’s time and money (at least, not losing money!). A recently released working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research – “Paid Sick Leave and Childcare” – explores whether state paid sick leave mandates are effective in giving parents more wherewithal to care for their sick children.
The conclusion:
Given that balancing work and family responsibilities is a key argument made by paid sick leave mandate proponents and policymakers, and that the majority of families report that achieving this balance is challenging, evaluating the impacts of paid sick leave mandates on childcare provision is a first-order question for assessing whether these mandates are effective. Our findings provide evidence that these mandates are meeting one of the core objectives touted by policymakers: allowing families the flexibility to provide care to their children.
Parental time spent on childcare goes up by 5% in states that have mandated paid sick leave policies.
Despite previous efforts, and unlike other major developed economic nations, the US does not have a federal paid sick leave policy, the authors note. Perhaps another potential policy discussion for an election in which “the family” is grabbing an increasingly share of the political oxygen.
And from my sample size of one niece I can confidently say that kids are sick All The Time. They say time is money. But you know what else time is? Time.
That’s where paid sick leave comes in. It’s time and money (at least, not losing money!). A recently released working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research – “Paid Sick Leave and Childcare” – explores whether state paid sick leave mandates are effective in giving parents more wherewithal to care for their sick children.
The conclusion:
Given that balancing work and family responsibilities is a key argument made by paid sick leave mandate proponents and policymakers, and that the majority of families report that achieving this balance is challenging, evaluating the impacts of paid sick leave mandates on childcare provision is a first-order question for assessing whether these mandates are effective. Our findings provide evidence that these mandates are meeting one of the core objectives touted by policymakers: allowing families the flexibility to provide care to their children.
Parental time spent on childcare goes up by 5% in states that have mandated paid sick leave policies.
Despite previous efforts, and unlike other major developed economic nations, the US does not have a federal paid sick leave policy, the authors note. Perhaps another potential policy discussion for an election in which “the family” is grabbing an increasingly share of the political oxygen.
