Massachusetts has paid parental leave for 3 months for parents and dads like me.
It’s great and paid for by a tiny additional payroll tax.
I think it should be the standard nation wide.
I know, I’m a dirty commie
Discussion
Yes you are lol
If you make it affordable for business, that’s how you get benefits like this. Imposing it by the state is universally done *after* it is being normalized. Just saying.
That is certainly a great policy though and it would be good to have it more widespread, but the state is robbing the country of trillions of dollars every year and it’s essentially not affordable at scale. No govt program can fix that. It’s not unlike outlawing child labor in poor countries, it has always just meant an explosion in child prostitution. The only thing they can actually do is get out of the way, establish strong, simple, easily understandable rules, and then get TF out of the way. 😁
I’m always extremely open to the means/system of how we get the END.
If there is a better means to a standard such as this that we can agree on in the U.S., I’m always open!
But it seems to be an ever present battle and for now in MA this works. But you’re right, a state budget is very different from feds because states actually have to balance their budgets. That’s why I’m a big proponent of state and local funding of things like this because it’s more realistic, the Fed is a shit show of debt and unpaid obligations.
Think most people around the country would be cool with a parental leave tax if they saw it replace something dumb like "food tax"
16 weeks x 3 here in Norway (with some variations/nuances)
First 16 for mom, second 16 for mom and dad to fight for, and third 16 for dad.
Awesome concept. But yes - has to be paid for..