The article “The FAMILY Act: Is national paid leave finally possible?” by Tom Spiggle, Forbes, addresses the topic of the FAMILY Act adoption. The US family medical leave has always been a controversial issue. It still faces skepticism from some politicians, although the first Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was adopted in the 1980th (Sholar, 2016). The most recent version of FMLA was introduced by Senator Kristen Gillibrand and Representative Rosa DeLauro (Spiggle, 2021). It is called the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act (FAMILY Act) and foregrounds the paid leave instead of the unpaid one provided by the current law.
The FAMILY Act will affect workers who have a newborn or recently adopted child, family members with poor health conditions, or serious health issues themselves. The adoption of the FAMILY Act will allow workers nationwide to take paid medical leave. However, due to the inevitable tax increase accompanying the Act’s adoption, many politicians do not approve it (Spiggle, 2016). However, the situation now seems to shift in favor of the Act, as President Biden, during his campaign, promised to provide national paid family leave for American workers.
Paid family leave closely relates to social welfare policy, as it belongs to social activity indicators (Sholar, 2016). Thus, it is eligible to increase people’s well-being and sense of security, which are the fundamental principles of social welfare. The paid family leave also meets the NASW Code of Ethics requirements, as it claims the importance of workers’ self-care, which is one of the major principles of the Code.
When analyzing the source where the article on the FAMILY Act was published, it is necessary to mention that the author seems to approve the adoption of the Act. Although, the article does not have any potential biases on the topic, as there is no evaluative lexis there. The only paragraph that may be considered slightly biased is the paragraph about the possibility of passing the controversial bill on paid medical leave rejected by Congress several times.
The workers’ paid medical or parental leave is one of the significant parts of the US social agenda today, as the FAMILY Act adoption will benefit both the government and the citizens. The last will not be afraid of losing their job while taking care of their family members. As for the government, the Act’s approval will guarantee a high ratio of the politicians who signed it into power.
References
Sholar, M. A. (2016). The history of family leave policies in the United States.The American Historian.
Spiggle, T. (2021). The FAMILY Act: Is national paid leave finally possible?Forbes.