Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected].
I’m a Bangor resident writing in support of establishing a paid leave system in Maine.
Caregiving and needing care are universal experiences. At one point in our lives or another, it is all but guaranteed that we will either need to provide care for a loved one and we will need to receive care ourselves. But that likelihood is not evenly dispersed and poses ramifications that are not evenly shared.
The stark reality is that women, the primary bearers of the unpaid care burden, are more likely to work part time citing childcare or other family obligations as the primary reason. While these women save Maine over $2 billion per year, they ultimately pay the cost: three in five caregivers are women. One in five of those caregivers reported caregiving as causing increased financial strain resulting in three in 10 caregivers not being able to save money and one in four taking on additional debt.
The result is that women are more likely to face the responsibility of providing care and to pay the financial penalty borne out by a loss in total earnings over a lifetime and decreased access to benefits. Maine families should never be penalized for doing the right thing.
I am urging people to support comprehensive paid leave for all Maine workers. They should please urge their state legislators to support paid leave in Augusta and when they see someone gathering signatures for a paid leave referendum, they should please sign it!
Jena Jones
Bangor
Election notice: The BDN has stopped accepting letters and columns related to the Nov. 8 election. Not all submissions can be published.
