This commentary is by Lauren Ebersol of Burlington, who is involved in a number of political advocacy efforts, particularly health care and reproductive rights.
At some point, injury and illness affect all of us. It could happen to us, or it could happen to a loved one — when our child, our spouse, or our parent needs help, and we become a temporary or permanent caretaker for them.
And we need time to get better, to heal from a serious injury or recover from surgery. But it is easy to neglect the healing process when you have to worry about finances.
Paid leave is sometimes available through an employer’s private insurance, usually only for medical emergencies or situations that directly affect the policyholder. Eleven states offer it.
Gov. Scott has shared that the state has found a private insurer for an optional plan, which would allow for up to 60% percent wage replacement. But that leaves out a key subset of people, and those are the ones who need it most.
If you are already living paycheck to paycheck, anything less than full replacement is unlikely to be too helpful. If the choice is to continue to work through an injury or illness with full pay when you’re barely getting by, or to effectively lose money by seeking treatment, the choice is clear. And if you have to become a caretaker, that is often a 100% wage loss, as it may not be covered by the private insurance option.
To make matters worse, Vermont, along with most of the Northeast, has previously been identified as one of the places in the country where it is most likely that people are living paycheck to paycheck. This was before the pandemic and, with recent inflationary woes, it has likely risen, given the statistic that nearly two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck in 2022.
Think about your situation — do you have savings? How would you handle a medical emergency, whether for yourself or a family member? Would a sudden paycheck decrease of 20% or 30%, maybe more, send you over the edge? It’s likely.
And these pay cuts don’t affect just those who live under the poverty line; they also impact those making over $100,000 a year.
Looking deeper into the numbers, this will affect communities of color, and especially the women in these communities, the most. People of color and women have consistently made 10% to 30% less than the average white man through recent memory, including up to 2022. The inequities here compound when you consider the statistics about returning to work after a medical event, like Sascha Mayer did in her February opinion piece.
We need paid family and medical leave to address the inequities brought about by racial and gender differences to ensure that all people in the state of Vermont are covered when they have a child, a medical emergency, or have to become a caretaker, and now cannot work. Eleven states have already enacted a plan like this, some even in the Northeast. The blueprint exists.
Paid family leave shouldn’t be considered an “either/or” to the Senate’s child care bill, S.56, but instead, should be considered essential. The House has made steps in beginning to pass a version of the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance bill – H.66 – and I urge all legislators to pass it this biennium.