Parental Leave as Unemployment.

• Author: Calvo, Cheye

Paid birth and adoption leave is a difficult political issue to oppose. But is unemployment insurance the right way to pay for it? The issue pits family advocates against more traditional supporters of the social insurance system.

Working too much would have been inconceivable to Great Depression laborers for whom the unemployment insurance system was created. Feeding one's family easily trumped quality time in that era of 25 percent joblessness. But "working too much" is exactly the notion driving the clinton administration's new rule allowing states to pay birth and adoption leave as unemployment compensation.

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 was the first major legislative achievement of the clinton administration. Now, the president is trying to get states to enact paid parental leave. In June, the Department of Labor released a new policy to let states use unemployment compensation funds to pay up to 12 weeks unemployment benefits to employees on leave after the birth or adoption of a child.

The Birth and Adoption Unemployment Compensation "experiment," sometimes called "birth and adoption UI," would significantly change the New Deal entitlement. Advocates say the new eligibility for unemployment insurance meets the needs of today's workforce and provides needed support to parents at this critical stage of child rearing. Opponents argue that the move is an illegal use of trust fund money that must be saved to protect unemployed workers and stabilize the economy in the case of economic hard times. Birth and adoption UI now moves to the states, and the debate will go far beyond paid birth and adoption leave. Clinton's new rule opens' the door to questions about the changing nature and needs of the American workforce, government's role in parenting and challenges facing one of the nation's dearest entitlement programs.

NEW WORKFORCE, NEW CHALLENGES

The staggering increase in working women represents the most dramatic trend in the labor market over the last half century. Whereas only 34 percent of women held jobs in 1950, that number climbed to 60 percent in 1998. During the last half century, the percentage of women workers aged 25 to 34 more than doubled from 34 percent to 76 percent. Patterns for women aged 35 to 44 reflect similar changes In fact, married mothers in the 1990s twice as likely to work full-time as their co of the 1970s.

The social and economic benefits of this new work-force are numerous. The roaring economy benefits from the enhanced and diversified labor market, and economic prosperity reaches new segments of the population. Yet, two-income households and the 40-hour plus work week challenge child rearing. Parents who sacrifice time with their children leave them increasingly open to other influences. The dots seem to connect from absentee parenting to declining academic performance to decidedly more tragic headlines.

"When the unemployment trust fund was started, families had one worker in the workforce and one at home. Today, we have two in the workforce and we have nobody at home," says Massachusetts Representative Anne Paulsen.

"What we need to look at in the 21st century is how we're going to accommodate families so that we have healthy families and healthy children, and people can make enough money to raise their families."

When policymakers first tried to help parents, they looked at child care financing, focusing on making care affordable, accessible and of good quality. Now, studies increasingly show that early relationships between parents and children prove a decisive factor in child development. Infant care is also generally more costly and less available than for older children. As a result, child and family advocates have turned to promoting new ways for parents to spend more time at home, especially during the first year.

This new movement was the push behind the Family and Medical Leave Act. Several states were already granting eligible workers unpaid leave to care for a new child or a serious illness of their own or a family member. The federal law gives to workers of employers with 50 or more employees up to 26 weeks of unpaid family and medical leave. Many states have similar laws with...