No matter how hard she tries, Ashley Hinson just can’t hide how out of touch she is with Iowa working families. Last week during a debate on “Iowa Press” Hinson proposed a paid family leave plan that would force employees to take money out of their 401(k) plans to afford time off to care for their loved ones – a plan that caters towards wealthy, white collar families in the middle of an economic crisis.
According to a nonpartisan policy expert, Hinson’s plan “isn’t just bad financial advice, it also ignores the reality of most families’ finances.” As Iowa Starting Line reported Friday, Hinson’s plan “would leave out many Americans, as only about half of private sector employers offer retirement plans to their employees and more than 80% of workers do not have access to paid family and medical leave.”
Iowa Starting Line: Hinson’s Paid Leave Plan Assumes People Have Big Savings, Policy Analyst Says
By Elizabeth Meyer
When asked this week during a debate with Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer whether paid family and medical leave should be federally mandated, Republican State Rep. Ashley Hinson said “there are a lot of creative solutions that we need to be looking at.”
Hinson’s solution? Allow employees to withdraw from their 401(k)s in order to afford time away from work.
“I don’t think we need a mandate,” Hinson said Monday night on “Iowa Press.” “Employers are stepping up to do the right thing, but I think we can have partnerships where people can borrow from their 401(k), for example, to be able to take that additional time off and have that resource available.”
This approach would leave out many Americans, as only about half of private sector employers offer retirement plans to their employees and more than 80% of workers do not have access to paid family and medical leave.
“Proposals that workers should, or even can, pull money out of a retirement account when they need to take leave isn’t just bad financial advice, it also ignores the reality of most families’ finances,” Jessica Mason, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan National Partnership for Women & Families, told Starting Line.
“It can be easy for those of us who are in white collar jobs or working in politics to assume that everybody has a trust fund or a retirement account, or something that they just have a lot of money sitting around,” Mason said. “But that’s just not true for most families.”
…Finkenauer, running to secure a second term in Iowa’s 1st District, is unequivocal in her support for paid family and medical leave.
“We are one of the last developed countries in the world that does not have paid family leave for folks who have children,” the congresswoman said. “And this is something I’ve also worked on since the Statehouse. Heck, I was just trying to get it that if you adopt a child you’re able to get leave, and ran into headway after headway after headway because folks didn’t like the fact that it would be a mandate.”
“And at the end of the day,” Finkenauer said, “you’re talking about people being able to bond and spend time with their children, and it’s the least we can do as Iowans and as Americans.”
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