Last month the Fair Employment and Housing Commission awarded a Los Angeles woman, Marina Chavez, $20,000 for emotional distress and 79 weeks of back pay after ruling that she had not been provided adequate maternity leave or been allowed reasonable time to breastfeed her infant. Chavez’s manager, Jaime Acosta, at Acosta Taco in Los Angeles fired Chavez after she had been back to work from maternity leave for one day. Her premature baby was only four weeks old and Chavez’s husband had driven the infant to her work so that she could feed him during her lunch break. Acosta fired her the following day.
The Fair Employment and Housing Commission reminded all present at the hearing, as well as Jaime Acosta himself, of the laws regarding maternity leave and breastfeeding in California. This case is a perfect example of how little many employers know about the laws regarding breastfeeding and maternity leave. Even more importantly, it serves as a reminder that the laws we do have regarding maternity leave and breastfeeding in the United States are not only sub-par but also an embarrassment compared to the laws in other countries around the world.
Maternity Leave and all That's Missing
Maternity leave in the United States is considered to be some of the worst in the world. The United States is one of only five countries that does not provide or require employers to provide some form of paid maternity leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 was a huge leap for families, providing 12 weeks of leave, but the time off from work was still unpaid. The FMLA leave was something many families were unable to take advantage of then and have an even harder time taking advantage of now, requiring many women to cut their time with their newborn much shorter then they would like. There are also still restrictions as who is eligible to take FMLA.
Since 1993, states such as California have implemented there own Paid Family leave (PFL) programs that help supplement disability payments and enables parents to receive some money during their time off, though it’s only about 55 percent of the employees' regular pay.
Similar restrictions that apply to FMLA also apply to California’s PFL, the most difficult and unfair being that the employee must have been employed at the job for a minimum of one year and that the company must have a minimum of 20 employees (FMLA states that to be eligible the company must employee 50 or more).
Though many companies still resist the idea of providing leave for its employees, the ones that do are reaping the rewards. Among the tax breaks and competitive edge offering maternity leave gives companies, according to Research from Families and Work Institute’s 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW), providing more flexibility to employees creates a more productive workplace, which of course translates to benefiting the economy.
Breastfeeding and Working: The Best of Both Worlds?
The issues of maternity leave also brings right into the other major issue women face when trying to balance new motherhood with a career: breastfeeding and pumping milk at work. California is one of the only states that have taken major strides in supporting a working woman’s right to continue breastfeeding an infant after they have returned to work.
According to the National Conference of State Legislation, 43 states have laws with language specifically allowing women to breastfeed in any public or private location. Twenty-eight states exempt breastfeeding from public indecency laws while 24 states have laws related to breastfeeding in the workplace. There are 12 states that exempt breastfeeding mothers from jury duty and five states that have implemented or encouraged the development of a breastfeeding awareness education campaign.
While these laws are all well and good, much like maternity leave laws, they vary from state to state and quite frankly are not well known among the general public. Recently Sarah Miller, a new mother in Red Hook, Brooklyn, was at an IKEA store where she discreetly attempted to feed her newborn baby. She was immediately told by security she would have to use the family restroom to do “that.” When she got there she found there was a line to use the restroom. She eventually gave up and rushed out the door to finish feeding the baby in her car and intends on filing a complaint against the so-called “family-friendly” store.
Miller's complaint is valid, because the IKEA security guards didn’t realize that New York has a Breastfeeding Mother’s Bill of Rights, which allows women the right to breastfeed in public. The IKEA store was in direct violation of those rights. Some confusion about where breastfeeding is permitted would be clarified if the Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009 were passed. The Breastfeeding Promotion Act (H.R. 2819) would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding by new mothers and make breastfeeding a civil right protected with all the same benefits as any other civil right.
Introduced by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), not only will this ensure that women can breastfeed in public with no fear of being discriminated against, but it will also create a more conducive working place for breastfeeding moms.
Summarized perfectly on the site Mom’s Rising,
"The Breastfeeding Promotion Act will support employers and nursing moms by:
* Providing tax incentives for businesses that establish private lactation areas in the workplace;
* Requiring employers to make reasonable efforts to provide appropriate space and break time for mothers to express milk;
* Protecting breastfeeding women from being fired or discriminated against in the workplace; and
* Allowing families to deduct the cost of breastfeeding equipment on their taxes, as is the case with other common medical expenses.
What Can You Do?
These laws are all a good start in creating less a more family-friendly environment in the United States, but they are still not enough. The economy in such a dire state that women are finally able to find a voice to make these changes begin. With more and more men finding themselves unemployed, families are relying on a woman’s income to carry the household. All of sudden issues such as fair pay, paid leave, and other issues that support an easier balance between work and family for women are no longer being considered “women’s issues’ but family issues.
The way to keep the ball rolling on these issues is for women like Marina Chavez and Sarah Miller to continue to speak up when discrimination in the workplace or in public happen. It’s up to women across the country to educate themselves on the laws in their state and make sure their employer is living up them. It’s also vital that women help support groups like Mom’s Rising in creating and instating the legislation that needs to pass to make the changes we still so desperately need. A 2007 New York Times article discussed the huge increase in workplace discrimination lawsuits related to "family care-giving obligations," including pregnancy and maternal care.
According to the Times article, "what constitutes discrimination in the eyes of the law is changing." The number of lawsuits filed suit against employers for alleged discrimination related to family issues such as becoming pregnant or needing to care for a sick child or relative has increased by more than 300 percent. Four-fifths of the 1,150+ suits have been filed by women. The workers filing the claims, more than half of the plaintiffs in the suits, won their cases, compared with a success rate of less than 20 percent among plaintiffs who filed "more conventional employment discrimination cases." Women are standing up, and they are winning.
The other battle cry that will help all these changes become a reality: more women running for office! The lack of a family-friendly environment in this country is directly related to why the United States ranks 71st in the world when it comes to female representation. It’s no coincidence that our low ranking when it comes to laws regarding maternity leave and other family issues are so close to the dismal number of women in office.
In order to get these changes made we need more women to get into office and make them. Women need to encourage other women to run for office and support groups such as WomenCount that are working daily to give women the voice in politics that is so lacking.
