By Karen Kreisberg and Betsy Krieger
One of the great joys in life is spending time with family. However, taking care of a baby or sick parent or sibling can seriously disrupt your life. The trauma of caring for a dying family member can stay with you forever.
And for too many Maryland families, that trauma is even worse because they can’t even take time away from work to process their grief or handle medical needs. Thousands of Marylanders have to choose between taking time to care for their families and being able to pay their bills.
That is not a choice Marylanders, living in the wealthiest state in our country, should ever have to make.
At the Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund, we have worked extensively on efforts to reduce trauma. Paid family and medical leave cannot eliminate the emotional trauma that caring for a sick relative can inflict, but it is essential to reducing the additional trauma of not being able to spend time with your family when they need you the most, or of the financial devastation that can happen when you lose your paycheck in order to spend that time together.
Maryland needs paid family and medical leave, and right now Sen. Antonio Hayes (D-40th) and Del. Kris Valderrama (D-26th) are working to get it for us. They are the sponsors of the Time To Care Act, which will provide every Maryland working family with paid leave to care for new children, sick relatives and long-term medical issues.
In the midst of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic that makes us isolated from our families in their moment of catastrophic illness, it is clearer than ever that time to care for ourselves and our families is absolutely essential to reducing our collective trauma.
On top of emotional well-being, paid family leave is also good for financial wellbeing. A recent study on policies that can support young children named paid family leave as the single most important policy that a state can adopt to help families start strong. The authors found that access to paid family leave led to a $3,400 increase in household income and a reduction in the poverty rate, especially for low-income single mothers.
There are legislators in Annapolis who claim that any policy that is good for working families is bad for small businesses. But paid family leave doesn’t just help families; it also helps businesses. According to the Maryland Center on Economic Policy (MDCEP) and reports from several states that have implemented paid family leave policies, businesses benefit when their workers have access to the vital resource.
With paid family leave, mothers are 13% more likely to return to their pre-birth employer in the year following the birth, and have a 13-18% increase in the probability of working one year following the birth. A policy that benefits families and businesses is a clear winner for Maryland , and maybe that’s why over 88% of Maryland voters support paid family leave.
Rabbi Hillel teaches us that we can’t separate ourselves from our community; we all have a responsibility for each other’s wellbeing and care. Nobody in our state, or anywhere else, should be forced to choose between their own health or the health of their loved ones and their jobs.
It is long past time to pass the Time To Care Act and give every Marylander time to care.
Betsy Krieger is a trustee and Karen Kreisberg is the former executive director of the Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund.
Michael Olesker pays tribute to WJZ’s retiring Marty Bass, a longtime fixture on local TV screens.
The Orioles' weak defense plays a major role in the nightly carnage, writes Michael Olesker.
Schools in Montgomery County have recently experienced a wave of antisemitic incidents.
Jmore Publisher Scott Rifkin, M.D., reacts to President Donald Trump's latest poll numbers and the real force behind the growing decline of the Trump movement.