The Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act” At issue here is are we, as a country, finally going to put our money where our mouth is when it comes to the bedrock of our civilized society—The American Family. And to be more specific, the wage earners in these families. Our country is the finest on earth, most generous, most equitable, egalitarian place there is. However, it is the only developed country that still does not offer its workers PAID leave to care for its newborn babies (or adopted or legally placed children) or its seriously ill (elderly). At issue is are we going help those that need FINANCIAL support as they care for their OWN family members who are too young or sick to care for themselves? Or are we not? Enter “The Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act”, or ‘The Family Act’. It proposes we do help. And at a very small cost, and to the betterment of family AND businesses alike. The necessity of this Act becomes more conspicuous each year. We next look at how big this problem is and who is affected. The curt answers are ‘huge’ and ‘almost everyone’. Most working-wage families in this country are stretched to their limits. The shrinking union jobs, the full-time jobs drying up in lieu of part-time jobs, benefits being slashed almost out of existence. The fact that only one in ten American workers has paid leave through their employer to cover the above speaks to how imperative this Act is. This paid act proposes a worker could receive up to three months of (two-thirds of) his/her pay, a stipend for states so that they could initiate similar programs, and money for analysis’ of these. Furthermore, less than half of our workers even qualify for the NON-paid family leave act in place now. It holds a person’s job, but with no income, how is one expected to pay their normal Gilbert 2 bills, let alone the added expense of the new child or sick relative? Most attractive to this Act is that it proposes to cover ALL workers, young and old, full-time and part-time, and ALL businesses, big and small. But perhaps best of all is that we will not suffer (yet another) huge tax increase rather, this leave will be paid through payroll deductions averaging a mere pittance
After the great depression, unions were legalized in order to be the voice for the workers for whom they represented to their employers. Once this legalization became evident through federal statute, set the stage for what was to become the Fair Labor Standards Act. Having just survived a depression, the United States was hoping to avoid any future economic downturns, the government would accomplish this with paying higher wages that the employer could afford and employees could provide for their families.
This article stated that, according to a study conducted by the United Way and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), approximately 40% of young workers in Ontario are in jobs classified as part-time, temporary or self-employed. The same study also found that less than half of part-time/temporary workers were able to transition into full-time higher-wage work and, perhaps most importantly, the percentage of those able to transition will likely decline over the next decade. Clearly, the growth of part-time and temporary jobs has been growing on an upward trend over the past decade and appears to have become part of business as usual. A study conducted in 2015 by the United Way and the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) states that approximately 22% of part-time/temporary work in the past year can be characterized as precarious work, i.e. work with poor or no benefits and job security. The growth in precarious employment is due to many factors including Globalization, improved technology, changes to business models, and the economic shift from manufacturing to the service sector. These shifts have essentially formed a new economy that has a high demand for fluidity and flexibility in the common workplace, and has low a demand for the old fashioned “Standard” model of the workplace (largely full-time employees with a full suite of
Providing health care for all workers and their families is a very good way to improve the benefit that workers receive for the worst forms of work to render workers less vulnerable, and to express social and communal respect for them.
because the employers do not have to provide health insurance or pension plans for these
The Family Law Legislation Amendment Act of 2011 and whether it has Reduced Violence and Abuse for Women and Children
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave and job protection for childbirth, adoption or foster care; to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, or parent; or for an employee’s own serious illness (Cañas & Sondak, 2011). It also requires that their group health benefits remain intact during the unpaid leave of absence. The employee must have worked for the employer for at least a year and must have earned 1,250 hours of service during the previous 12 months ((Cañas & Sondak, 2011, pg. 70).
Health insurance, too many American citizens, is not an option. However, some citizens find it unnecessary. Working in the health care field, I witness the effects of uninsured patients on medical offices. Too often, I see a “self-pay” patient receive care from their doctor and then fail to pay for it. Altogether, their refusal to pay leaves the office at a loss of money and calls for patients to pay extra in covering for the cost of the care the uninsured patient received. One office visit does not seem like too big of an expense, but multiple patients failing to pay for the care they receive adds up. Imagine the hospital bills that patients fail to pay; health services in a hospital are double, sometimes triple, in price at a hospital. It is unfair that paying patients are responsible for covering these unpaid services. Luckily, the Affordable Care Act was passed on March 23, 2010, otherwise known as Obamacare. Obamacare is necessary in America because it calls for all citizens to be health insured, no worrying about pre-existing conditions, and free benefits for men and women’s health.
The balancing act of family and work can be very difficult at times. At some point in everyone’s life, he or she will need to take time off of work to deal with family matters. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 was created to help employees find a balance between the challenging demands of work and home. This Act allows eligible workers that require time off for personal reasons or family emergencies up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave.
With advanced technologies in health care, the average lifespan of humans is around eighty-eight years, and these numbers are growing rapidly. Most elderly outnumber the younger within our population now, and with more of the baby boomer generation reaching the gold years, this number will rise exponentially. The cost of healthcare rising and the amount of Medicare funds decreasing makes caring for that loved one challenging. Statistics by Dr. Feng presented, “Individuals are living much longer; family structures are changing; women have entered the workforce. With no national health insurance program like Medicare and with the one-child policy that places elder care responsibilities on fewer shoulders” (Dr Feng). To some, the question of placing an elderly family member in long-term care facilities is a difficult one to consider. All too many times the elderly abandoned are not seeing families until visitation funeral ceremonies.
unemployment. I feel that if we put the burden on the people of Ontario to be
The IWF has found that when women take leave for their family, men are able to gain experience and therefore more earnings (Cooper). According to Lydia Frank from the Harvard Business Review, “...the largest pay gaps existed between married mothers and fathers who tell us they prioritize family at least 1-4 times per year. No pay gap existed between single men and women without children who said they never prioritize home/family over work.” The causes of the gender pay gap can be easily fixed if the government takes
The gap in wealth between the rich and the poor continues to grow larger, as productivity increases but wages remain the same. There were changes in the tax structure that gave the wealthy tax breaks, such as only taxing for social security within the first $113,700 of income in a year. For CEOs this tax was paid off almost immediately. Free trade treaties broke barriers to trade and resulted in outsourcing and lower wages for workers. In “Job on the Line” by William Adler, a worker named Mollie James lost her job when the factory moved to Mexico. “The job in which Mollie James once took great pride, the job that both fostered and repaid her loyalty by enabling her to rise above humble beginnings and provide for her family – that job does not now pay Balbina Duque a wage sufficient to live on” (489). When Balbina started working she was only making 65 cents an hour. Another huge issue lies in the minimum wage. In 2007, the minimum wage was only 51% of the living wage in America. How can a person live 51% of a life? Especially when cuts were being made in anti-poverty and welfare programs that were intended to get people on their feet. Now, it seems that the system keeps people down, as they try to earn more but their benefits are taken away faster than they can earn. Even when workers tried to get together to help themselves they were thrown
(8) U.S. Dept. of Labor, Family and Medical Leave Act – Wage and Hour Division (WHD) (http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/), 2013, Website
Family Law (Law Express) 2th edition, by Jonathon Herring, published by Pearson Education Limited 2009
The Mexican revolution is very good example of how, when in tough times, poor families