Tuesday, May 10, 2016

San Francisco Introduces Enhanced Family Leave Benefits

                The city of San Francisco has enacted a new, ultra-generous family-leave policy that goes far beyond existing California law. Workers with a newborn- or an ailing family member- will now be entitled to 100 percent of their salaries for up to six weeks, with 45% being paid directly by employers.
                The rule, like the state policy and the “Affordable Care Act,” or Obama-care, applies to firms with 50 or more employees, and is yet one more reason for smaller companies to avoid hiring and to keep part-time workers part-time workers… or move out of the city entirely.
                Ironically, San Francisco is one of the least family friendly cities in the nation, due in part to zoning laws that make housing exorbitantly expensive. The new law appears to be family friendly on its surface, but is rendered largely moot due to the fact that the city has the fewest children per capita of any major American city, a by-product of the fact that it also harbors the most gays and lesbians, the only people who can afford the outrageous housing prices. This is not a pro-family policy, it is an anti-business, pro progressive policy.

                Yet, isn’t offering extra benefits only for fathers and mothers discriminatory and exclusionary? How many weeks off with full pay do the spouses of those changing gender-or species- get? How about those caring for an ailing pet?

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