Parental leave bill would be funded by retirement benefits

Parental leave bill would be funded by retirement benefitsParental leave bill would be funded by retirement benefitsOn Thursday, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., unveiled legislation that would give American families federal paid leave for at least two months. The catch? The money would come from yourfuture Social Security payments.If you choose to withdraw from those monthly wages now, you would have to delay the date at which you can receive Social Security retirement benefits later in life. Calling paid family leave the social insecurity of our time, Rubio said his Economic Security for New Parents Act would give families more options to finance the costs of raising a new child.No one is required to do this, but everyone will have the option of saying, Im going to take some of my benefits, Rubio said. These are your benefits, not anybody elses.The United States currently does not federally mandate any paid family leave, a position that makes the nation an outlier among developed countri es.What the paid family leave plan will give and cost familiesRubio acknowledges that his plan is a unique approach unlike other plans around the world that force employers to pay for leave, or fund it through taxes, this fund is coming straight from your future self. Critics slammed the bill for forcing families to pick between their kids and their retirement, sacrificing their futures to fund their present.A program that only covers parents caring for new children, provides no leave for family care and personal medical needs, and forces parents to choose between paid leave and retirement security is absolutely the wrong way to go, Debra Ness, the National Partnership for Women Families president,said in a statementWednesday.According to the advocacy groups survey, the top reasons Americans take family and medical leave today are not to take care of a new child, but to care for their own illness (52%) and tocare for a sick family member (31%). Rubios bill would only coverchildbirt h or adoption as conditions to receive family leave.Rubios bill would let parents making below a median family income of about $70,000 to take a two-month leave at over 70% of their wages. But according to analysts, large families would pay for that later. Parents who take four 12-week leaves over their lifetime would lose 10% of their Social Security retirement benefits, according to oneApril analysis from the Urban Instituteabout this plan.This is not the only national paid leave plan in the pipeline. Sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, the FAMILY act proposed in early 2017 would guarantee paid family and medical leave to workers, and would be funded through payroll taxes, a model similar to what California has already passed.