Why We Have to End Waiting Periods and Limited Leave at Work

We all know why waiting periods—the arbitrary amount of time the government makes someone wait between their abortion counseling appointment and receiving their abortion—are harmful to people seeking abortions and should be abolished. But why do we allow them in our workplace benefit policies?

We’ve seen them in benefits policies: a ninety day wait before a worker begins accruing vacation paid time off; a six month wait before an employee can take parental leave; a year wait before an employee can start receiving retirement benefits matching. The thing is, there aren’t any valid reasons for the waits and they should be abolished

Similarly, the limitations on leave or why you can take leave are unnecessary. The policies are rigid and don’t match the realities of our lives and who we care about. It’s time to update these policies to benefit all employees. 

Parental Leave

Putting a waiting period on parental leave is probably the most egregious one we’ve seen given our movement’s work. We already know that people can experience pregnancies unexpectedly. Parental leave policies are already short given that there’s no national mandate or minimum and our 2020 report found that our movement has some not great policies. So, all of that, combined with a new employee’s lack of accrued vacation time, makes denying a new employee paid parental leave is an atrocious policy. Allow employees to take parental leave at any point during their employment so that no one is making decisions about their pregnancies based on constrained factors like not having paid leave.

Pregnancy Leave

Similar to parental leave, all employees should have access to parental leave and it should not be based on how long they’ve worked at an organization. Unexpected pregnancies can happen to anyone. Our movement literally organizes around this. Policies should allow for pregnancy-related leave such as time off for pregnancy-related health care appointments, abortion appointments, surrogacy prenatal appointments, and more. If we believe that everyone deserves access to reproductive health care, our organizations should be modeling this with our own policies.

Bereavement Leave

One of the most frustrating policies is an organizational bereavement policy that limits who can be bereaved and for how long. It’s common for organizations to list which family members’ deaths qualify for bereavement leave and limit employees to three or five days of bereavement leave per year. This is a problematic policy for a few different reasons. All of our families look different and our relationships with individuals in our families look different too. Limiting bereavement to specific family members rather than allowing an employee to identify people significant to them leaves out chosen families as an integral source of support. Similarly, grief looks different for everyone. Limiting the number of days employees can have for bereavement means that employees might not be able to travel long distances or abroad for a funeral. Some religious traditions or communities have longer practices for grief or honoring the lives of those who’ve passed. Allowing for an open-ended bereavement policy allows for all employees to have their grief, cultural, religious, and familial needs met when it matters most.

Retirement Benefits

A lot of organizations require employees to be employed at an organization for a certain amount of time before they can receive retirement benefits or matching to the benefits. As employees change jobs, these waiting periods of multiple years add up and means that our movement workers aren’t able to save as much money for their retirement. It’s even harder for workers who are shifting between short term jobs on campaigns, grant funded programs, or other projects. This creates an economic imbalance for our movement’s workers as they plan for their retirement. Remove these barriers and allow all employees to partake in retirement savings as soon as they start a new job.

Paid Time Off

Life doesn’t stop happening just because someone started a new job. People need time off for all sorts of reasons at all times of their lives, including as soon as they start a new job. Paid time off isn’t just for vacations. It’s for time off of work to deal with life. Limiting the amount of time off someone can take creates situations in which they have to choose between their familial obligations and their new job. Allowing all employees to take the time off that they need gives them the ability to settle into their new job while also addressing personal issues going on in their lives.

Sick Leave

People get sick. Illness doesn’t time itself to the start of a new job. Employees need paid leave. Do not limit their paid sick leave based on when they started a job. We work on reproductive health care. We shouldn’t limit sick leave.