Avni Patel Thompson

A prevailing argument against a paid family leave policy is that it hurts employers. “Pro-business” tax cuts and incentives, the thinking goes, are a better way to ensure workers get time off when they need it. But a study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research in April suggests that taxpayer-funded paid family leave does not harm... See more

“Child care is a textbook example of a broken market,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, a mother herself. She pointed out that families spend, on average, 13 percent of their income on child care for young kids, yet day-care workers earn so little they rank in the bottom 2 percent of all professions.

The principal function of most corporations is not to maximize shareholder value, but to maximize the standard of living and quality of work life of those who manage the corporation.

Yet the decision to step down from a position of power—to value family over professional advancement, even for a time—is directly at odds with the prevailing social pressures on career professionals in the United States.