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Commonwealth Forum: Would Mandated Paid Leave 

Be a Competitive Disadvantage for Pennsylvania?

YES

Businesses in Pennsylvania do not need more regulations from the state dic-
tating what benefits they give their employees. Currently, the state’s unem-
ployment rate is 0.7 percentage points above the national average. In 2016, 
Pennsylvania ranked fourteenth from the bottom in terms of job creation. 
Forcing businesses to spend more on employee benefits will not attract more 
firms to Pennsylvania or encourage citizens to start up their own businesses 
with prohibitive employee costs. Implementing another layer of cost on em-
ployers when nearby states do not do so will likely cost the state jobs and 
revenue as businesses flee across the border.

One of the ways firms attract top talent is through offering the benefits 
such talent desires. While not every business in Pennsylvania offers paid 
family and medical leave, some do. Not everyone desires paid family and 
medical leave as a benefit, yet such a program would mandate that businesses 
offer such a program. Maybe some employees would prefer to have these 
benefits offered in wages? For example, what about late-middle-age employ-
ees whose children are raised and parents deceased? What benefit is man-
dated paid leave to them? Employers and employees should have the option 
to implement the type and amount of benefits they would prefer as part of 
free and open labor contract negotiations. If some people are working for 
businesses that do not offer such benefits at all, yet the employee would like 
to have that benefit, it can only serve as an incentive to work harder toward 
a career within a more competitive labor market.

NO

Federal government statistics show that a majority of Americans with chil-
dren under age six are employed. As of 2016, both parents were employed in 
56.3 percent of married households, while 66.8 percent of women and 83.8 
percent of men in single-parent households had jobs. These families rely on 
their earnings to put a roof over their heads and provide food and clothing 
to their children. Changes in social mores and the transition to a postindus-
trial economy have made the prospect of a parent staying at home to raise 
children an antiquated concept for most families.



Paid family medical leave in Pennsylvania would encourage one or both 
parents to stay home with their children in the early months of their lives. 
Adopting paid family medical leave would not harm business fortunes in the 
Commonwealth. In fact, it would actually benefit business competitiveness 
and the bottom line while helping families. After California adopted a paid 
leave law, 90 percent of employers surveyed reported that they suffered either 
no financial losses or actually increased profitability as a consequence of the 
law. Paid family leave reduces turnover, meaning that firms spend less on 
recruiting, hiring, and training new employees. It also results in more 
women returning to their jobs after childbirth, which is a plus, because they 
have the skill sets and institutional knowledge to hit the ground running 
after leave. Among firms that adopt paid family leave, morale and worker 
productivity has been shown to increase. All of these things lead to a better-
trained workforce without any negative side effects for business. Adopting 
paid family medical leave is a perfect way to attract good talent to Pennsyl-
vania and increase the strength of the Commonwealth’s workforce.

For More Information

The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (https:// 
www .dol .gov/ whd/ fmla/) provides guides and fact sheets for employees 
and employers explaining the details of the federal Family and Medical 
Leave Act.

The National Conference of State Legislatures (www .ncsl .org/ research/ 
labor -and -employment/ employee -leave .aspx) keeps track of the states’ 
family and medical leave laws including coverage and eligibility, the pro-
visions (paid or unpaid), and for whom the leave is  providing care. Some 
states also provide mandated school-related parental leave.

“Paid Family Medical Leave: An Issue Whose Time Has Come” (https:// 
www .brookings .edu/ wp -content/ uploads/ 2017/ 06/ es _20170606 
_paidfamilyleave .pdf) is the 2017 joint publication of a group of scholars 
from the free-market-leaning American Enterprise Institute and the 
center-left Brookings Institution. The work includes data on family med-
ical leave policies in the United States and countries in the Organization 
for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The Independent Women’s Forum (http:// www .iwf. org/) is a libertarian 
organization that provides a number of reports and opinion pieces op-
posing government-mandated paid medical leave.

From Pennsylvania Politics and Policy: A Commonwealth Reader, Volume 1. Edited by
Michelle J. Atherton and J. Wesley Leckrone (Philadelphia, Temple University Press,
2018).




