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The Paid Leave Fairy Tale - YouTube
Channel: John Stossel
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[Baby Laughing]
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Paid family leave.
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It鈥檚 what moments like these are all about.
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Do you support a nationwide paid parental leave policy?
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Absolutely and even more.
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[Applause]
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Politicians always want government to do more.
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Now they want to force companies to give
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every parent paid time off.
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Every worker in America
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should be guaranteed at least 12 weeks
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Every worker should get at least 12 weeks.
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Why 12 weeks?
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That's a very arbitrary number.
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Why not 14 weeks?
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Why not 26 weeks?
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Onwuka is a working mom.
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Bonding time between a mom and a baby is important.
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When she had her son, her employer,
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the Independent Women鈥檚 Forum,
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gave her 6 weeks paid leave.
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But she wanted more time off.
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I supplemented those six weeks with additional time off,
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some vacation time.
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This is my baby boy Jesse.
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It was wonderful to have that time off,
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but it's also important for me to be able to customize
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the time off that I needed.
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Government programs however are hard to customize,
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but now both parties are pushing government solutions.
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This is not a women鈥檚 issue.
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It鈥檚 a family issue.
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And America, say people like John Oliver,
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is way behind the world.
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We and Papua New Guinea are the only countries
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in the world that do not provide any paid time off.
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Just us and Papua New Guinea.
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It's disingenuous to say, uh-oh,
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we're the only nation along with Papa New Guinea.
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Because most American workers already get paid leave.
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17% get parental leave.
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But you jumped to 60, 70, 80% when you consider
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people have sick time off, overtime, or an
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all-encompassing personal time.
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So companies and workers are already kind
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of working this out voluntarily
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They are.
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Paid leave is spreading.
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[Walmart sounds]
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And not just for high paid employees.
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We are talking about Chipotle workers, CVS workers,
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Walmart workers started to get paid leave.
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Why would CVS and Walmart provide this voluntarily?
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For an employer to attract good talent
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or retain their talent, they need to offer benefits
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that really resonate with workers.
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Paid maternity and paternity leave
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is one of those benefits.
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It鈥檒l be good for business.
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Politicians are so arrogant that they say
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they must tell business what鈥檚 good for business.
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It鈥檚 good for business.
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It鈥檚 good for this country.
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In truth, it is bad for business
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and not even good for most women.
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If we look at how the rest of the world has provided
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very generous, paid leave, mandated paid leave plans,
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we see that it actually has a negative impact on women.
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Why would that be?
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Because mandatory leave
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makes a young woman a hiring risk.
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If an employer has a young woman in front of him
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of child bearing age and he's thinking,
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okay, I have to provide paid time off
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for this young woman or I have a potential other
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employee who's a male
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The male becomes a safer bet.
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And sure enough, in California,
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the first state to mandate paid family leave,
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a study found women of childbearing age
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were more likely to be unemployed.
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And in Europe, lots of women do work,
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but in lower level jobs.
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American women are more likely to be in
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senior level positions, managerial positions,
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than women in Europe.
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Twice as likely?
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Twice as likely.
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And it's very much tied to these mandates
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around paid leave and paid time off.
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On top of all that
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Our politicians understate the cost.
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It鈥檚 such a small amount to of money.
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It鈥檚 the cost of a cup of coffee a week.
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About a dollar sixty-one cents a year.
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But that鈥檚 not true.
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In California, the cost is already $12 a week.
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And government programs always grow.
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There is a push to add a huge extension
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to paid parental leave in California
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Mission creep always happens
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with government programs.
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All of a sudden that $12 goes to $24, $36, $48
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So can鈥檛 we just say, parental leave is something
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best left to employers and employees?
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Leave them free to make their own deals?
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Probably not, I鈥檓 sad to report,
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because now even politicians who call themselves
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conservatives want government to do something.
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As conservatives we鈥檙e pro-family.
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He and some other Republicans support a bill
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called The Cradle Act
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The Cradle Act would allow new parents
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to tap into their Social Security savings.
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At least the Republican plan is not mandatory.
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Anyone can choose whether or not
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to participate in the program.
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Here is Onwuka at the press conference
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showing her support
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Already Social Security is unsustainable,
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now you're going to break it open for paid leave?
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But It's not a growth of government.
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What's interesting about this plan
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Yes it is, you are tapping Social Security,
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there'll be a new bureaucracy to monitor it.
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It's not a new entitlement, it's not a new bureaucracy.
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It is literally just allowing workers to tap
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into Social Security benefits that they are
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already paying for.
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So when they're older there'll be less in their
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Social Security fund and there won't be enough money
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and we'll have to raise taxes again.
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Older workers or retirees have more resources
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when they retire.
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Younger workers are the ones who
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have lower incomes.
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Give me a break, can鈥檛 we ever say there
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is something that鈥檚 not government鈥檚 job?
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We鈥檙e already $22 trillion in debt.
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We don鈥檛 need another government program.
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