Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential nominee to offer a paid family leave plan on Tuesday, but first doesn’t necessarily mean good. In this case, first really doesn’t mean good. For one thing, this isn’t really a paid family leave plan. It’s a paid maternity leave plan—not only are fathers left out, but so are adoptive parents and people who need time to care for an elderly parent or other sick family member. That’s not all. Bryce Covert reports:
And even women who would get the benefit could still end up being harmed in other ways. “If this really is just maternity leave, that is going to result in quite negative consequences for women,” noted Glynn. “We would see things like employment discrimination and a worsening of the wage gap.”
That wouldn’t just apply to new mothers, but potentially all women of childbearing age. Women already face a significant motherhood penalty, but studies have found that mandating benefits for women, such as long maternity leaves, can further harm women’s wages and employment, especially if employers see them as a particularly costly investment.
Trump’s plan also addresses childcare, and it’s no better on that front. He would let people making under $250,000 (or $500,000 for a couple) deduct childcare from their taxes. But that doesn’t do much to help people who don’t make enough to pay for care to begin with, and who would have to find a way to pay up front before getting their tax deductions. Those deductions would do a lot more for higher-income families, too, as the Clinton campaign explained:
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Trump’s plan give around 43 cents on the dollar to 470,000 families with children in the top income tax bracket, and less than half as much to tens of millions of working families in the middle class. That’s because taxpayers in the top income tax bracket can deduct at their income tax rate of 39.6% plus around 4% for half of their payroll taxes.
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Trump’s child care plan gives 12 million hard-working families just 4 cents on the dollar. For the 12 million families with children who do not have federal income tax liability, Trump’s plan would give just a few cents on the dollar - half of their payroll tax obligations, or around 4 cents on the dollar. That’s almost 10 times less than the highest-earning families eligible for the plan. [...]
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Trump’s new child care proposal might offer families less than currently available tax credits. In fact, the more than 30 million middle-class families with children in the 15% bracket or lower might get less under Trump’s plan than under the current-law Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, which offers a 20% tax credit against up to $6,000 in child care expenses, because under Trump’s plan, they might only be able to deduct up to 15%.
This isn’t a plan really meant to pass—it’s a plan meant to help Trump appeal to Republican women who’d been turned off by his insults and vicious policies. But if it did become law, it would be a good fit for Trump, helping well-to-do families and leaving low-income families out.
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