Senate Democrats on Tuesday introduced legislation that would give federal employees, but not private sector workers, six weeks of paid leave away from work, time and money. These employees would be able to use the time to either give birth to a child, or go through the process of adopting a child.
Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., proposed the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act.
The senators acknowledged that current law already gives employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to deal with medical and family issues. Under their bill, six of those weeks would be paid, and Schatz said that change would help struggling federal workers feed their new or growing families.
“Our legislation will provide federal workers with six weeks of paid leave, making sure no federal employee has to make the impossible choice between caring for a newborn child and putting dinner on the table,” he said.
“Working families who work hard and play by the rules deserve to get ahead and not just get by,” said Mikulski. “No working parent should be forced to choose between caring for their family and keeping their job.”
While the bill doesn’t deal with private sector workers, Schatz said the private sector is increasingly giving paid leave to their workers, and that the same thing needs to happen for the federal workforce.
Federal workers have seen a pay freeze in recent years, but they did get 1 percent raises in the last two years, and many Republicans have said federal workers still make more than private sector workers and have better perks, including a pension plan.
GOP candidate Jeb Bush, for example, said in July that more needs to be done to eliminate the current pay structure for federal employees, since it “rewards longevity, instead of performance.”
The Senate bill is a companion to legislation that several dozen House Democrats proposed back in January. That bill was a response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, in which he called for legislation requiring paid time off.
Obama’s specific request, however, was for a bill that “gives every worker in America the opportunity to earn seven days of paid sick leave.”
