Presidential Candidate Survey Findings

Ellen Bravo, Director, 9to5, National Association of Working Women and Member, Take Care Net Steering Committee

January 13, 2004
National Press Club, Washington DC

For more information, contact 414-274-0926 or email pr@9to5.org

Thank you very much for joining us to learn about the results of the Take Care Net’s presidential candidate survey on work-family issues.

Before I announce the findings, let me say a word about Take Care Net and how we came up with the questions on the survey. Take Care Net is a national alliance of more than 300 work-life experts who have come to recognize that it’s not enough to document the problems associated with children's and parents' needs around early childhood education, after-school care and family leave. We need to call for public policy solutions.

Last October we issued an open letter to America, calling on all candidates for public office in the United States to study these needs and propose public programs to help meet them. Research clearly demonstrates that children benefit from high quality early education experiences. We pointed out that both children and parents benefit when workers can leave work, with pay and job security, to address their children's critical needs. Businesses and the economy benefit, too, when workers are not forced to choose between competing demands at home and at work. And of course, our entire society benefits when children are well prepared for school and able to have their parents care for them without jeopardizing their economic security.

A country as wealthy as the United States can afford to provide these family-friendly benefits. What has been lacking to date is not the means but the public will. The collective work of Take Care Net experts underscores the huge costs of not providing such benefits – to children, to families, to employers and to taxpayers.

Let me also say what these issues mean for the members of 9to5, most of whom are women in low-wage jobs. Many are eligible for child care assistance but find the funds are depleted or their eligibility disappears as soon as they get their first raise. After-school care for their children is a patchwork - at a neighbor’s one day, a relative’s the next, or home alone. When the school calls to say a child is being suspended, the parent often finds herself suspended from work without pay. When our members are sick, they go to work, and when their children are sick, they often go to school – or their mothers face lost wages and disciplinary measures. Some members don’t take family leave when they need to because they’re not covered; others are eligible but can’t afford to take unpaid time off. Because they can’t get enough hours, some of our members work two or more part-time jobs – with no benefits and lower hourly wages; when they get laid off, they’re not eligible for unemployment. For these women, minimum wage and overtime protection are work and family issues.

Like most voters, they care very much what the candidates propose to do about this.

The Take Care Net presidential candidate survey encompassed the whole specter of caregiving issues – more funding for early education and child care, expanding access and affordability of family and medical leave, increasing support for family and paid caregivers, and limiting excessive hours of work.

The results of our survey are enormously encouraging. On the eve of the Iowa caucus, this is one area where the nine Democratic candidates show striking unanimity and where a number of them are taking initiatives.

President Bush's campaign will not be responding to candidate surveys until March. Take Care Net notes the public positions of the President where they are available and looks forward to his completed survey this spring.

Areas of Agreement
The respondents had unanimity on the majority of our proposals.

Early Education and Child Care
Respondents all agree on the need to increase funding for child care, including for those in the TANF program, for after-school care, for universal pre-school programs, and for Head Start.

We should note that President Bush has proposed cutting funds for after-school care. We hope he will change his position on this.

Family and Medical Leave
The respondents all agree on the need to cover more people, for more situations, with a more realistic definition of family, and to make progress on finding ways to provide wage replacement during leave.

Paid Caregivers
Respondents all agree with initiatives to increase training and wages for child care providers, many of whom now earn poverty wages and raise the minimum wage. They also agree with the need to improve staffing ratios and limit mandatory overtime for caregivers.

General Work/Life Balance
And in the final category of work/life balance, respondents are unanimous in supporting limits on mandatory overtime and opposing recent proposals by the Bush administration that would 1result in loss of overtime protection for millions of workers.

Most Agree with the Remaining Proposals
Almost all respondents support requiring employers to provide a minimum number of paid sick days for workers to care for personal or family illness. In the area of family caregivers, most respondents agree with the need for structural changes to support workers who reduce work schedules because of family care responsibilities. And most support expanding the child care tax credit and making it refundable.

We note that President Bush rescinded the regulation allowing states to utilize surplus unemployment insurance funds for wage replacement during parental leave – an option for the states that nearly all the respondents support.

Candidate Initiatives
We are especially glad to see that most of the candidates are offering their own initiatives on early education and family leave. These include:

• Wesley Clark proposes equal pay for women, expanding FMLA, increased child care and transportation funds in TANF, and labor law reform.
• Howard Dean proposes establishing a National Invest for Success program to double the current investment into early education, increase child care funds and offer pre-k to all 4-year-olds. He also intends to propose a New Social Contract with additional benefits and coverage under FMLA.
• John Edwards proposes paid leave through a tax credit, expanding FMLA to include teacher conferences, increased federal support for elder care, and fund after-school programs.
• Richard Gephardt proposes health care insurance for every American, access to pre-school for every child, and full funding for Head Start.
• John Kerry proposes to increase child care funds, assure universal after-school care, increase and index the minimum wage, provide all children health care, expand FMLA and create a telecommuting tax credit.
• Dennis Kucinich’s proposal is to establish universal pre-k, replace minimum wage with a living wage, and prohibit mandatory overtime.
• Joseph Lieberman has proposed a national paid leave program, allowing workers to take up to 4 weeks FML leave at half salary.

Voters are hungry for leaders who offer concrete solutions and leadership on work-family issues. We urge whoever is the Democratic nominee to heed the testimony, research and polling results discussed here today and make work-family issues a centerpiece of their campaign. Likewise, we urge President Bush to embrace these policies and offer working families positive proposals for change.