Proposals to have the federal government help new parents take paid leave from theiremployment have generally come with serious disadvantages.
If the government makes companies eat the cost, it might alsomake them less willing to promote or hire women of child-bearing age. Ifthe government instead makes taxpayers as a whole pay for leave, then itpenalizes families that have chosen to have one parent stay out ofthe paid labor force to take care of children. This seemsespecially unfair since those families have lower average incomesthan two-earner families.
A new proposal on paid leave, however, avoids these pitfalls. Itwould instead let new parents finance time off from their jobs byslightly delaying the time at which they would collect SocialSecurity benefits. Kristin Shapiro, a lawyer in Washington,explained the idea in a recent paper for theIndependent Women’s Forum. She estimates that new parents couldfinance 12 weeks of leave in return for a six-week delay in takingSocial Security checks.
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