President Obama is making another move to improve conditions for workers—but as usual, what he can do without Congress is limited. Federal workers will get the immediate benefit, as Obama signs a memorandum advancing new parents up to six weeks of paid sick leave even if they haven't yet accrued that much. But even federal workers will have to wait for Congress to provide true paid family leave, while 43 million American workers will have to wait for Congress or their state or local governments to get even a few days a year of paid sick leave.
That's why Obama is calling on Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act, a bill allowing workers to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave a year. In tacit acknowledgement of how unlikely this Republican Congress is to pass that bill, he's also urging city and state governments to enact sick leave laws. There is momentum on that front, with two states and a number of cities passing sick leave laws in 2014. Obama is also calling on Congress to pass legislation giving six weeks of paid family leave to federal workers for birth, adoption, or foster placement. Additionally, according to a White House fact sheet:
Three states—California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island—have launched programs offering paid family and medical leave, and President Obama believes that more can be done to promote state action. His FY 2016 Budget will propose $2.2 billion in mandatory funding to reimburse up to five states for three years for the administrative costs and roughly half of the cost of benefits associated with implementing a program. The President’s Budget will also include $35 million in competitive grants to assist states that are still building the administrative infrastructure they would need to launch paid leave programs in the future.
But again, we're talking about a Congress controlled by Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. They'll say it can't be done, is too expensive, is simply outrageous. That's where Obama's next move comes in: The Department of Labor is using existing funds to provide $1 million in grants to states and cities to conduct paid leave feasibility studies. That's a piddling amount of money by government standards, but every state or city that finds out that paid leave can be done and would be a good idea is a mark against Republican obstructionism. It lays the groundwork both for state and local laws now and for a track record of success by the time there's a Democratic-led Congress that might take up paid leave bills.
This announcement came just as a federal judge rolled back one of Obama's previous attempts to make things better for workers, by extending minimum wage and overtime protections to 2 million homecare workers. According to the ruling, Congress would need to pass such protections. And again, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. The judge's decision is terrible, depressing news that will keep these workers, who are overwhelmingly women and people of color, working long hours and still living in poverty. Obama's push on paid leave doesn't remotely undo that, but it's good to see that—however long it took him to start fighting—Obama appears ready to keep fighting.