Obama Pushes for Paid Parental Leave, Workplace Flexibility

Kathryn Dill

President Obama shared his own family’s experiences and drew on those of others as part of a resounding call for parental leave, workplace flexibility, and overall improvement in U.S. workplace policies in his remarks at Monday’s White House Summit on Working Families.

Obama opened by describing a lunch he had with several summit participants that day at a nearby Chipotle–one of several local field trips he’s made recently, sans motorcade–and said that though each individual hailed from a different geography, industry, and income level, all participants were bound together by “a recognition that work gives us a sense of place and income,” but that “family is also the bedrock of our lives, and we don’t want a society where folks are having to make a choice between those two things.”

“Most of our days consist of work, family, and not much else, and those two spheres are constantly interacting with each other,” said Obama, adding that this dynamic holds true even for the President of the United States.

The bulk of his remarks focused on paid leave for parents and those who serve as a family member’s caretaker, and workplace flexibility policies that would allow employees to better cope with the demands of parenting and caretaking, provisions which, he said, “are not frills, they are basic needs” that should be “part of our bottom line as a society.” The continued failure of government and employers to address these issues, said, Obama, is holding back families who are “doing everything right” but find themselves unable to get ahead.

“These problems are not typically the results of poor planning or too little diligence on the parts of moms or dads,” said Obama, “and they can not just be fixed by working harder or being a better parent. All too often they’re the result of outdated policies and old ways of thinking.”

Addressing the gendered nature of some of the conversations surrounding workplace policy, Obama noted that men also face the challenges of parenting and caretaking while holding fulltime employment, but said that their motives are questioned less often than their female counterparts. He shared a conversation of which he had recently been part, in which he was reminded that when a man says he’s leaving the office early to attend a parent/teacher conference, he’s met with remarks of “Oh, isn’t that nice,” while when a woman does the same, coworkers often ask, “Is she committed to the job?”

Obama’s remarks were also a plea for the passage of several pieces of work and family-related legislature, including the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and a call for continued support for the Affordable Care Act and raising minimum wage.

In a familiar refrain, Obama said that while he couldn’t guarantee Congress would act on any of these issues, he planned to model the workplace values therein with actions at the executive level.

“Today I’m going to sign a presidential memorandum,” said Obama, “requiring every federal agency to address flexible work schedules and give employees the right to request flexible work schedules.”

He also highlighted companies that have thrived as the result of innovative policies: JetBlue, which allows customer service employees the opportunity to work from home; Google, which increased parental leave to retain female employees who were leaving the company at twice the rate of male; and Cisco, which Obama said saves $275 million each year by allowing employees to telecommute.

In closing, Obama referenced the women who raised him, and the work-lives he envisioned for his daughters. “I want them to be able to have families, and I want them to be able to have careers, and I want them to go as far as their dreams will take them,” said Obama. “I want a society that supports that.”