In Rhode Island, residents pleased with paid family leave

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – As President Barack Obama pushes for a federal law to get paid leave to care for a new baby or an ailing relative, residents of one of the three states that already provide it sing its praises.

Rhode Island last year began allowing workers to take up to four weeks of paid leave. Many workers say they love the program, and employers say it hasn’t hurt business as some had feared.

Anne Quirk, of Providence, had planned to take three months of unpaid leave from her job after she gave birth. But she needed five months off after her doctor ordered her on bed rest last year; then, her son was born prematurely in June.

“It was just such a stress reliever, knowing there was going to be money to help us pay the bills,” she said. “I don’t know what we would’ve done without it.”

About 5,000 people have taken paid family leave in Rhode Island so far. New Jersey and California are the other states that provide it, and several states are considering it. Washington state passed legislation but has put off implementing it.

The United States is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t mandate paid leave for mothers of newborns.

In Rhode Island, workers pay through a payroll deduction. The benefit for family leave amounts to about 60 percent of an employee’s regular paycheck, capped at $770 per week.

Rhode Island Republican state Rep. Brian Newberry said he thinks the state’s paid family leave bill is one of the worst pieces of legislation passed in his seven years in the House. It hurts businesses and imposes a tax on many people who never use it, said Newberry, the House minority leader. He thinks the insurance should be privatized.

“The disruption to a business when a key person leaves for that length of time is immense,” Newberry said. “There’s nothing good about that bill.”

Republican state Sen. Christopher Scott Ottiano also opposed the bill out of fear it would be onerous for businesses, but he said his thinking is “evolving.” Ottiano, a doctor, has seen how the program has helped many of his patients.

Rhode Island businesses say it has barely made a ripple.

At the state’s largest employer, the Lifespan health system, 500 employees have used it and it’s been a “nonissue,” said spokeswoman Gail Leach Carvelli. The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training said it has heard no concerns from small businesses since the rollout.

General Dynamics Electric Boat said it has easily been able to accommodate the nine people who have taken leave. Other businesses said the same.