帶薪育兒假的社會呼聲

帶薪育兒假的社會呼聲

Twenty-five years ago today, on February 5, 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act. The first and only federal leave legislation in the United States, it guarantees nearly 60% of employees 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave to take care of a new baby, a sick relative or their own serious medical condition.

25年前的今天，1993年2月5日，比爾·克林頓總統(tǒng)簽署了《家庭和醫(yī)療休假法》。這是美國第一個也是唯一一個聯(lián)邦休假法，它保證近60%的員工有12周的受工作保護(hù)的無薪假期來照顧新生兒、生病的親戚或他們自己的嚴(yán)重醫(yī)療狀況。

While happy with the new legislation, family leave advocates -- some of whom had spent the better part of a decade fighting for the policy -- didn't consider it an outright victory at the time. The law was better from nothing, yes, but also far from ideal.

盡管對這項新立法感到滿意，但提倡家庭休假的人士當(dāng)時并不認(rèn)為這是一場徹底的勝利。其中一些人在過去10年的大部分時間里一直在為這項政策而戰(zhàn)。法律從無到有固然好，但也遠(yuǎn)非理想。

It leaves out lots of men and women (it doesn't cover freelancers and those who work at companies with fewer than 50 employees, for example), it offers nothing in the way of income replacement, and the time period is too short, at least compared with more family-friendly countries such as France, the Netherlands and Spain, all of which offer 16 weeks at full wage replacement.

它遺漏了很多男性和女性(例如，不包括自由職業(yè)者和那些工作有少于50名員工的公司),它提供了沒有收入的替代,時間太短,至少相比,更有利于家庭的國家,如法國、荷蘭和西班牙,所有這些提供16周工資替代。

"We always knew that we needed to expand it," said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values @ Work, a network of 27 state coalitions pushing for paid sick days and paid family leave.

“我們一直知道，我們需要擴(kuò)大它，”家庭價值觀@ Work的執(zhí)行董事埃倫布拉沃(Ellen Bravo)說。這個由27個州聯(lián)盟推動帶薪病假和帶薪家庭假組成的網(wǎng)絡(luò)。

Bravo and others advocates have continued the fight, making gains on the state level and encouraging businesses to expand their paid leave policies and offer them to more employees, including men and part-time workers.

Bravo和其他倡導(dǎo)者繼續(xù)抗?fàn)帲谥菀患壢〉昧诉M(jìn)展，并鼓勵企業(yè)擴(kuò)大帶薪休假政策，向包括男性和兼職員工在內(nèi)的更多員工提供帶薪休假。

They've also turned paid leave into a talking point used by politicians on both sides of the aisle, most recently heard as a pledge from President Donald Trump during last week's State of the Union address.

他們還把帶薪休假變成了兩黨政客們的談資，最近的一次是唐納德·特朗普(Donald Trump)總統(tǒng)在上周的國情咨文演講中做出的承諾。

Even with all these successes, the federal policy has remained unchanged since Clinton signed it a quarter-century ago. The United States still holds the unenviable title of being the only industrialized country that does not offer all of its citizens paid family leave. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 14% of civilian workers had access to paid leave in 2016, and that's only thanks to state laws or employer largess.

盡管取得了這些成就，聯(lián)邦政策自25年前克林頓簽署以來一直沒有改變。美國仍然是唯一一個不向所有公民提供帶薪家庭假的工業(yè)化國家，這一頭銜并不令人羨慕。根據(jù)美國勞工統(tǒng)計局(Bureau of Labor Statistics)的數(shù)據(jù)，2016年，只有14%的文職員工可以享受帶薪休假，這要?dú)w功于州法律或雇主的慷慨。

The current United States family leave policy harms women and men in all stages of life, in myriad ways. In particular, it holds long-lasting consequences for new mothers. Not receiving paid time off holds women back professionally and financially. Limited and unpaid leave also has a less quantifiable, but nevertheless damaging, effect on their mental health.

目前美國的家庭休假政策以各種各樣的方式傷害著各個階段都女性和男性。尤其是，它對新媽媽們有著持久的影響。沒有帶薪休假會阻礙女性在職業(yè)和經(jīng)濟(jì)上的發(fā)展。有限的無薪假期對他們的心理健康也有較少的可量化影響，但卻具有破壞性。

Work leave and mental health

工作休假和心理健康

Research has connected the dots between inadequate paid leave policies and higher incidences of clinically diagnosable anxiety and depression among women, both during the postpartum period as well as later in life. However, paid leave advocates and experts in maternal mental health believe that many more women experience psychological anguish as a result of these insufficient policies, even if it doesn't land them in a therapist's office or with a Prozac prescription.

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，帶薪休假政策不足與女性在產(chǎn)后及以后的生活中出現(xiàn)臨床診斷性焦慮和抑郁的幾率較高之間存在關(guān)聯(lián)。然而，帶薪休假的倡導(dǎo)者和孕產(chǎn)婦心理健康專家認(rèn)為，由于這些政策的不足，更多的女性經(jīng)歷了心理痛苦，即使這些政策沒有讓她們?nèi)タ葱睦磲t(yī)生或服用百憂解(Prozac)處方。

'How am I going to move forward?'

“我該如何前進(jìn)?”

Melissa Marion Henriquez, a 38-year-old mother of two in Kalamazoo, Michigan, received no paid leave from her employer with either of her children. She cobbled together short leaves by combining short-term disability payments and vacation time but ultimately took only 12 weeks off with each child, eight weeks of which were partially paid.

38歲的梅麗莎·馬里恩·亨利克斯(Melissa Marion Henriquez)是密歇根州卡拉馬祖(Kalamazoo)兩個孩子的母親。她把短期傷殘補(bǔ)助和假期結(jié)合起來，拼湊出了短假，但最終每個孩子只休了12周的假，其中8周是部分支付的。

"Leaving them at day care that early was traumatic. The day care center had a webcam, and that's how I made it through the workday," Marion Henriquez said. "It was extremely painful. I never had postpartum depression, but I definitely had moments when I said, 'I can't do this.' ... I felt like I was being a bad mom and a bad employee, especially in the first months after their birth, when I had a total lack of confidence. It took two years with each kid before I thought, 'I can handle it.' "

“這么早把他們留在日托中心是一種創(chuàng)傷。日托中心有攝像頭，我就是這樣度過工作日的。”“非常痛苦。我從未患過產(chǎn)后抑郁癥，但我確實有過這樣的時刻:‘我做不到。“…我覺得我是一個壞媽媽，一個壞員工，尤其是在他們出生后的頭幾個月，我完全沒有信心。每個孩子花了兩年的時間，我才想，‘我能行。’”