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Paid Family Leave Prompts Personal Testimony In Connecticut Legislature

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Should the state of Connecticut become just the fourth in the nation to mandate paid family and medical leave for private employees? The question looks set to generate plenty of debate in Hartford this session, but the battle lines are more complicated than you might imagine. 

State Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro was among those testifying before the Connecticut legislature this week, a very rare appearance before state lawmakers by a member of the federal delegation.

DeLauro told of her experience of being diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was just beginning a job as a legislative aide, and having to rely on her employer’s discretion to take leave.

DeLauro was fortunate that that employer was then-Senator Chris Dodd, a pioneer on the issue of paid family leave. Others, she said, are not so lucky. Many of her constituents are one medical emergency away from financial disaster.

"This is not how it should be," DeLauro said in her impassioned testimony to the Labor Committee. "Access to family and medical leave should be a fundamental right. And yet, just 13 percent of the workforce has paid family leave through their employers. Our state should continue to set an example the nation can follow."

State Senator Beth Bye gave evidence to the committee in her role as a developmental psychologist, who's worked in infant/toddler childcare for much of her career. "Really for 50 years we've had a good understanding that early relationships are critical, and the attachment to parents is critical," Bye told her fellow lawmakers.

Bye told her own story of being forced to return to work in 1994, just six weeks after her child had been born, under threat of being fired. "This was a heart-wrenching experience for my family and for me. I didn't know what to do, but I had to choose to earn a living," she said. 

"Very little of our public policy has changed to recognize both the fragility and the opportunity that that young brain holds," Bye went on. "Parents are without childcare options. The bill before you is so modest. It isn't asking for state funding, it isn't asking for businesses even to pay a share for their employees."

The bill under consideration this session would set up a leave plan that is paid for by employees themselves. But some in the business community have still said they don’t want to see more mandates placed on companies. 

Foremost among those voices: the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. At Wednesday's Business Day at the Capitol, CBIA's Bonnie Stewart implored her members to lobby their legislators against the bill.

"That measure really would be devastating for the state of Connecticut," Stewart told them. "Not only because it impacts pretty much every employer in the state, but the costs associated with it for the state of Connecticut is very, very high."

Stewart contends that the state would have to hire hundreds of new employees to administer the program.

But not every employer agrees with the CBIA's stance. Just a day before, Rory Gale, owner of Hartford Prints, told the Labor Committee she believes the passage of the bill is necessary to support Connecticut families. 

"The health and wellbeing of my employees are very important to me, as they are my neighbors and my friends," Gale said. "I would be ecstatic to be able to provide this benefit to my employees, and this policy will allow me to do so without any real cost to me and my business."

Harriet Jones is Managing Editor for Connecticut Public Radio, overseeing the coverage of daily stories from our busy newsroom.

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