Open Letter to Employers: Avoid FSU’s Mistakes By Supporting Working Parents

The backlash that Florida State University (FSU) faced over its decision to bar employees from caring for children while working remotely should serve as a wake-up call to all employers: Working parents will not accept inflexible working conditions that make the dual demands of family and work even harder.

After several days of negative media attention and social media outrage, the university reversed its decision by allowing employees to care for children while working remotely, a policy that was established at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a time of national crisis when the country should be coming together and looking for ways to support families during these challenging times, FSU made a serious initial misstep. Unfortunately for parents, it may not be the last harmful decision we see from employers.

FSU’s proposed policy touched a nerve, highlighting the daily stresses and fears that working parents face as teleworking with kids at home — a once temporary inconvenience — morphs into an open-ended reality. The daily spikes in coronavirus cases coupled with the lack of details about summer camp, child care and school openings make these fears even more valid.

Barring working parents from caring for kids while working at home is problematic on multiple fronts:

• It’s a discriminatory policy that hurts women. Women are often the ones who will take time off of work, reduce their hours or quit their jobs to take care of their families and are in many cases the sole or primary breadwinner. At the same time, women are less likely to have access to caregiving leave through an employer. It should be no surprise then that women’s workforce participation rates dropped below 50 percent this spring, erasing nearly 40 years of progress.
• It places a greater burden on workers of color and low-income workers. 71 percent of Latinx workers, 67 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native workers, 61 percent of Black workers and 54 percent of Asian American and Pacific Islander workers are either not eligible for or cannot afford to take unpaid Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave. Nearly half (48 percent) of Latinx workers and more than one-third (36 percent) of Black workers report having no paid time away from work of any kind.
• Child care options aren’t readily available today and without a policy solution it will not be available after this pandemic. Some child care providers remained open during the pandemic to care for the children of essential workers, while others closed in keeping with public health guidelines, some for good, unable to sustain operations with lowered enrollment and less revenue. Many others are now looking at re-opening amidst concerns about health and safety and lower enrollment, which will decrease revenue at the same time costs for cleaning and health and safety supplies are going up. Without child care or school, parents are struggling to work, attend college, participate in job training and take care of other household responsibilities. This is getting worse as more workplaces reopen.
• It forces workers and parents to pay the price for the lack of leadership and insufficient protections for public health. Research shows us that a strong economy doesn’t come about by punishing working people with caregiving responsibilities, but rather by giving them additional workplace flexibilities and supports.

Families need interventions and support in order to continue to participate in the workforce. Employers must have a “we are all in this together” mindset instead of just paying families lip service. At the same time, policymakers must enact policies that support all families during and after the pandemic:

• Nationwide, comprehensive paid family and medical leave and sick days. Paid leave supports women to stay in the workforce, both during normal times and especially during this pandemic. An analysis from 2014 showed that if women participated in the U.S. labor force at the same rates as women in countries with paid leave, our economy would benefit from more than $500 billion in additional economic activity each year. S&P recently noted that increased female labor force participation could accelerate U.S. GDP growth, adding a staggering $5.87 trillion to the global stock market in 10 years. Anecdotes reported in the news have shown the impossible demands being placed on women to care for their children while working. Access to paid leave would also allow men and women to share more of this burden, helping to keep women in the workforce.
• Nationwide, comprehensive child care for all, starting with a significant public investment in a dedicated child care stabilization fund. A bold response to stabilize child care will ensure our employment rate can recover quickly and demonstrate a commitment to flourishing families. A significant investment in child care is simultaneously job creating and job enabling — creating good care jobs and supporting parental employment. Ensuring child care for all could add 2.2 million jobs to the economy, increasing GDP by $274 billion.

Employers must learn from the experience of FSU and provide policies that help workers navigate these uncertain times. And policymakers must ensure workers in this country have access to paid leave, sick days and child care now and in the years to come. Our economy and the financial prosperity of our workers depend on it.

Sincerely,

A Better Balance
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap
Lambda Legal
Main Street Alliance
MomsRising
National Immigration Law Center
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Women’s Law Center
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Paid Leave For All
PL+US: Paid Leave for the United States
TIMES UP Foundation
Workplace Fairness
Women’s Foundation of Florida
Zero to Three