![]() And we saved for a year before her birth so that we could afford me to take some time off. It's hard if not impossible to get by, even for a short time, on one paycheck and it breaks my heart to be faced with the reality that I will likely not be able to stay home with our daughter during her formative first year due to finances. Keep in mind, it's not that these families failed to save in anticipation of the birth of a child. My husband is back at work now and I am able to stay home a few more weeks with paid family leave until our premature son is a little older and I have to return to work. Disability and paid family leave is the only way I could have stayed home and not returned to work immediately after the birth of our son. With my husband out of work we fell behind on our bills and mortgage. My husband was laid off in February and our son was born in April. (Stories courtesy of the California Work and Family Coalition - which spearheaded the effort to the pass California's law - and its website, with thanks to Netsy Firestein and Brandy Davis of the Labor Project for Working Families.) Real stories of real families for whom paid leave made the difference paint a vivid picture. In a recession, having it makes a significant economic difference for families - including new mothers, for whom no paid leave can mean having to return to work within days of giving birth, fresh stitches and all. Passed in 2002 and in effect since July 2004, California's paid family leave insurance program provides most workers with six weeks a year of partial pay (55% of wages up to a weekly max - $987 per week in 2010) during unpaid time off from work to care for a newborn, new adopted or foster child, or seriously ill parent, child, spouse, or domestic partner. This July marked the sixth anniversary of the nation's first state law that provides comprehensive paid family leave.
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