Dems Are Proposing a Perk That Only Federal Workers Would Get

From The Blaze.com (Jan. 27):

Twenty-one House Democrats have proposed legislation that would give federal workers — and only federal workers — six weeks of paid leave so they can give birth, adopt a child or deal with the placement of a foster child.

The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act is an attempt to build off of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, in which he called for legislation giving everyone paid time off if they’re sick or having a child.

“Today, we are the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers,” Obama said.

The Democratic bill would be a step in that direction, but it would start by giving only federal workers six weeks of paid leave for parental reasons.

“You can count on one hand the number of countries that don’t provide paid leave for the birth of a child, and the United States is part of the club,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the sponsor of the bill.

“This is not only wrong; it’s bad for our economy,” she said. “Smart paid leave policies improve employee retention, boost productivity and more.”

But while she highlighted these benefits, she and other sponsors are not proposing to give them to private sector workers, and instead are hoping those benefits would “make a difference in the lives of millions of federal employees.”   [read more]

Not only is this a bad idea for gov’t workers but also the private sector. If a business can afford to give a worker three weeks off for giving birth then that’s between them and their employee. When a worker is gone he/she is missed. Productivity goes down. The person has to be temporarily replaced.  Not sure how that boosts productivity or improves employee retention.

The question is why isn’t the private sector included in the bill. Could it be because the dems don’t care about business workers? Or could it be the dems know this is a bad idea but they think it won’t effect gov’t productivity because gov’t doesn’t have that much productivity to begin with? You choose.