Rita Hudson-Evalt, Union Rose PDX - Oregon
Portland, OR
As a business owner I would love to have paid leave support built into the system, to ensure my employees have robust protection for times they need to take leave. I have not been able to provide this type of protection to them privately, and would love to have it rolled into our current payroll and tax system so ALL workers are protected and able to take leave when necessary. It's a win-win-win! for our economy, workers and small business owners.
As a small business owner I believe it would ensure less turnover - which leads to more knowledgeable and skilled employees, less hiring expenses, and increased employee productivity.
As a mother I know if there had been a financial safety net after I had had my first child we could have avoided so much 'new mom' trauma. I had a protracted hospital stay- which cut down on my amount of time I could stay away from working after giving birth. (My plan was to have all of 2 weeks to focus on my baby- that's all I could manage to save, even as a business owner!)
With no financial protection, and being the primary earner in my family, being unable to focus on taking care of my newborn led to so much stress - I had to take care of ALL of us, not just the one. And then my sweet little newborn was almost hospitalized for failure to thrive, and my family and I came to the brink of losing almost everything, all for a mortgage payment.
We made it through, but not without enough trauma that tears are welling up in my eyes right now. All I needed was time. Protected time to care for my newborn, and let my body heal and and be everything to another human. I truly believe it's our obligation to each other as humans, and our government's obligation to provide reasonable and robust care for mothers and caregivers. If we want to see our local communities and economies thrive we need to give people Protected Time to step out of the financial economy when they need, as they are doing the critical work in the care economy, which has gone unpaid for too long.