Pa. Senate Democrats back bill requiring employers to provide leave for family care

A committee of state Senate Democrats on Tuesday discussed a proposal to require Pennsylvania employers to provide 24 hours of paid leave for “small necessities” each year. The goal is to ensure employees who take care of family members like children or elderly parents are able to attend medical appointments, school activities, or respond to unexpected emergencies.

“This is legislation that gets at the key question: ‘What is work life balance?’” Sen. Art Haywood (D-Montgomery), the bill’s sponsor, said. “Employees are not just workers. They are also family members.”

The bill is based on a law that passed in Massachusetts, though it does not go as far as family leave policies implemented in states including New Jersey and California, according to panelists who testified on Tuesday.

The proposal has yet to be introduced and exact language has not been released publicly, but a memo seeking co-sponsors was issued last December.

Lonnie Golden, a professor of economics and labor-human resources at Penn State and one of the panelists, said it will benefit both workers and bosses.

“There’s some evidence that it improves workers’ job satisfaction, so as a result of that [employers] are more likely to retain senior, experienced staff,” Golden said.

However, Golden noted that there can be downsides for employers, especially when one member of a small team needs time off.

Blake Emmanuel, the director of advocacy and policy at the Fund for Women and Girls, said the policy could be especially beneficial for women in the workforce, who are more likely to be primary caretakers for their families as well.

“From a women’s issue perspective, we know that women fulfill the majority of caretaking roles,” Emmanuel said. “Data supplied by the U.S. Department of Labor found that women need to take more leave for family or medical reasons — 24% — versus men, who need to take 17%, and they still have even more unmet needs.”

Emmanuel, who is a mother of children with disabilities, said such a policy would have benefitted her greatly when her children were in school, and she often attended multiple meetings there each month.

Wallace Weaver, a spokesperson for Haywood, said the bill’s language is still being fine tuned, which includes answering questions such as which employers will be required to provide leave and exactly what circumstances will qualify as “small necessities.”