Donald Trump to Offer Maternity Leave Proposal—But as Usual, It Doesn’t Add Up

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Here’s what we’ve all been waiting for: Donald Trump’s maternity leave proposal. It is, we are told, the result of consultations with his expert on women’s issues, Ivanka Trump:

Mr. Trump’s proposal calls for allowing taxpayers—both those who take the standard deduction and those who itemize deductions—to deduct child-care expenses up to an amount equal to the average cost of care in their state….The proposal also calls for providing six weeks of paid maternity leave through unemployment benefits to parents whose employers don’t offer paid maternity leave….The Trump campaign said the cost of his paid-leave policy would be offset by reducing waste and abuse in the unemployment insurance program. The Trump proposal also would offer “spending rebates” of up to $1,200 a year to lower-income families through the Earned Income Tax Credit.

This is, as usual, as clear as mud. On the maternity leave front, we apparently have a one-sentence proposal: six weeks of leave “through unemployment benefits,” whatever that means. Does it mean that new mothers will simply receive normal unemployment benefits for six weeks? That maxes out at $450 per week—or $2,700 for six weeks—which is about half of the median weekly earnings level.

As for the cost, well, who knows? But let’s take a rough swag. There are about 4 million births per year in the United States. Figure 70 percent of women are in the labor force and 90 percent don’t get employer maternity leave. That gets us to 2.5 million women eligible for Trump’s program, and on average each will get a total of, oh, let’s say $2,000 or so. That comes to $5 billion.

And how will it be paid for? By reducing “waste and abuse” in the unemployment insurance program. Again, let’s take a rough swag at this. Total benefits in 2016 are projected to come in at $32 billion. Of that, about 10 percent represents overpayments, or $3.2 billion. A vigorous program could probably cut that by half, saving $1.6 billion. Finally, the federal share of UI is roughly 20 percent, so that means the feds would save about $0.3 billion.

So it seems like Trump is a wee bit short—not that he cares, I’m sure. In his world, one takes the word for the deed. As for his child-care program, it’s hard to analyze. As a tax deduction it would mostly benefit the middle class and above. However, he’s also offering something or other through the EITC. How would this all add up? Beats me, and I doubt that it will become any clearer when we see his program details.

Still, snark aside, at least he’s accepting the principle that we ought to help out new mothers with maternity leave and child-care expenses. Will any other Republicans follow his lead?

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate