NEW PAPER: Designing a paid leave policy to support our most vulnerable workers

Abby McCloskey, Angela Rachidi, Peyton Roth, AEI, October 7, 2020

  • While the academic and political case for paid leave advanced considerably in recent years, questions remain regarding how a national paid leave program would affect low-wage workers.

  • Research shows that many existing paid leave programs in the US and other countries impose costs on vulnerable populations due to regressive funding sources and fewer benefits to low-income parents caused by this group’s low program take-up rate.

  • However, paid family leave programs offer significant advantages for low-income parents, increasing parents’ access to paid time off and benefiting low-income children financially and developmentally.

  • Balancing these findings requires designing a public paid family leave program that supports low-wage working parents, limits private-sector benefit crowd out, and reduces the regressivity of funding.

Rules of the game are now up for grabs

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, September 25, 2020

“The possibility of a blue trifecta; new, New Deal; a sitting president not accepting election results; packed Supreme Court, either conservative or with its size changed; and so much more.

Thoughts on our political chaos and what it means for the norms of engagement that undergird the whole thing. In today's paper:”

The Biden Agenda: What He Might Do For Working Families

Abby McCloskey, The Dispatch, September 10, 2020

“The 2020 presidential election comes at a time when America’s working families are under extreme duress. Democrat nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden brings compassion and policy reforms to provide relief and opportunity to families, but his proposals are not without downsides.”

The pandemic can be more than purgatory. It can be a time of deep spiritual formation.

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, August 9, 2020

“Ordinary Time is a season to hang the green banner instead of wave the white flag. The pandemic is all around us, but in our best moments, we can stop ourselves from thinking of it as a lost six months or lost year — a sort of purgatory and waiting it out. Rather we can see this as a period of time set aside for (painful) growth, re-anchoring to what really matters, establishing habits to persist after the trial is done. This is of course more easily said than done, requiring deep spiritual dependence, community and humility. There’s a reason why Ordinary Time cycles around each year in the church calendar. It is not learned all at once.”

What’s Missing From Senate GOP Plan

Abby McCloskey & Ben Gitis, The Dispatch, July 23, 2020

“Senate Republicans released their long-awaited plan for the next round of COVID relief, kicking off congressional negotiations centered on vital issues such as extending emergency unemployment benefits (though to a lesser degree), issuing another round of recovery rebates, and increasing testing. But what’s largely missing are targeted plans to help caregivers—who face unprecedented responsibilities largely due to child care center and school closures—return to work.” 

Bipartisan Policy Center - Morning Consult Poll: Unemployment Insurance and Caregiving Responsibilities During COVID-19

Abby McCloskey, Ben Gitis, Bipartisan Policy Center, July 2020

Workers are facing unprecedented caregiving responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, largely related to school and child care closures. Many workers lack options aside from unemployment insurance (UI) for balancing caregiving responsibilities with their jobs. A quarter of UI recipients—roughly 8 million workers—primarily spend their time caregiving, and caregiving is the primary barrier to reemployment among parents on UI who are not looking for a job. As the nation grapples with reopening, Congress can better support workers’ engagement in the labor force and their caregiving responsibilities.

Survey Parameters:

Morning Consult surveyed 1,500 persons receiving unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was fielded on June 19, 2020 – July 6, 2020.

Get Ready For The Economic Rollercoaster

Abby McCloskey, The Dispatch, June 18, 2020

“Our nation’s top forecasters predict that we are nearing an inflection point in the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our polarized politics, coupled with a presidential election year and an evolving virus, are likely to understate the complexity, uncertainty, and continued adaptation that the recovery will involve. 

 Republicans are likely to emphasize the good—citing historic rates of improvement—and Democrats are likely to emphasize the bad—citing historic levels of damage—as if our giant and interwoven economy and her impending recovery can be understood in a binary way that fails to account for the full picture. “

Meeting Physical Force with Soul Force

Abby McCloskey, June 7, 2020, Dallas Morning News

“Where leadership is desperately needed to ignite our common bonds, many of our politicians squandered political capital to scratch the cheap itch of partisan trench warfare. In doing so, their ability to speak into the pain that our nation is going through has been irreparably sacrificed. Moments of maturity are easily overwhelmed by the thousands of tweets that suggest otherwise, giving people permission to tune out. Washington has never been bigger, louder. But it has never felt smaller, less relevant.”

PODCAST: Politics and Public Health

Abby McCloskey, Highland Park Methodist Church, May 27, 2020

Economist and Political Commentator, Abby McCloskey, explores why where you get your news affects your response to the virus, the science (and shame) of masking, and what it means to love God and your neighbor as the economy re-opens. Interview with Hannah Buchanan, Director of Adult Ministries.

Listen here: http://www.hpumc.org/letmein/?sapurl=LytlNjA1L2xiL21pLytndms2Z2t4P2JyYW5kaW5nPXRydWUmZW1iZWQ9dHJ1ZQ==

The Pandemic Has Exposed a Need for Better Paid Leave Policies

Abby McCloskey, The Dispatch, May 26, 2020

“When people feel pressure to go to work while ill or when a family member is sick, it is problematic during typical times. During a pandemic, it can be fatal...That said, policymakers should take caution in basing a permanent federal paid leave policy on this emergency experience. The environment we are in is unique, and there is a clear and meaningful distinction between emergency measures and policies necessary during usual times. Before making any permanent changes, policymakers should step back and reassess what we know about paid leave policies and what we have yet to learn.”

Republicans Should Be Playing Offense on Economic Relief

Abby McCloskey, The Dispatch, May 19, 2020

“Give Americans a path forward that instills confidence, security, and hope. Put meat on it. Let people know you are in it with them for the long haul. Republican politicians tend to do poorly on surveys about whether they “care about people like me.” Now’s the time to push against the caricature with compassion and urgency and targeted support.”

It's Time to Shore Up the Labor Market

Abby McCloskey, The Dispatch, May 11, 2020

“Some may argue we do not have the resources to do any of this, a federal debt crisis already looming. But a shattered labor force will make future economic growth even more evasive and our debt obligations infinitely harder to pay off. To be sure, America would benefit from a sign of commitment for tackling entitlement reform when the current crisis ends, as the lack of attention represents a threat to the workforce and economic growth (as if we needed something else to worry about). But leaving the driver of the debt in place while pulling back on our short-term emergency response would be foolhardy. No one benefits from mass long-term unemployment and a shrinking labor force, which will exacerbate the tragedy in which we find ourselves.

The reopening phase we are in will mean very little if there are no jobs available and no workers to be found.”

Reopening in Baby Steps

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, May 3, 2020

“After the economic destruction from the last two months, it’s clear we need a more calibrated approach than what we’ve been living before a vaccine is developed. That said, the hope of normal must be marked with a dose of realism. This is not getting through a series of reopenings without spikes in infection and we are in the clear come July. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently said it’s not a question of if coronavirus will return in the fall; the virus most certainly will. This time must be used to get ready.”

NEW PAPER: The American Dream in 2020: How To Strengthen It

Aparna Mathur, Abby McCloskey, Erin Melly, “The American Dream in 2020: How To Strengthen It,” The American Enterprise Institute, April 23, 2020

“When we were researching and writing this report, a global pandemic was the farthest thing from our minds. In a matter of weeks, the economy has been overturned by COVID-19 and the response required to combat it. Economic opportunity has become not a question of how to climb the economic ladder and achieve the American dream, but how to survive when paychecks and livelihoods are threatened. Addressing the immediate needs of mass unemployment and financial insecurity are now the priority, along with repairing the underlying cracks in the system, which the pandemic more fully revealed, such as the lack of paid leave, crisis preparedness, and medical infrastructure. 

Even so, the impact and response to the pandemic underscores many of the core themes in this report. The latest research on economic opportunity and upward mobility highlights the importance of social capital for economic well-being. The power of community has become all the more poignant as we have retreated to more isolated lives required by social distancing. Oftentimes, local institutions and neighborhoods have a greater influence on economic outcomes than what is occurring at the federal level.”

How Coronavirus Will Change the 2020 Election

Abby McCloskey, The Dallas Morning News, April 19, 2020

“The trajectory of the coronavirus and the administration’s response are likely to drive what happens in November. While elections tend to be about a basket of issues — the economy, health care, climate, immigration, etc. — in a matter of weeks it’s boiled down to something previously unimaginable: who we want in charge of a pandemic.”

Coronavirus is weaving us closer together

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, April 12, 2020


”The virus has put unprecedented distance between us. By doing so, it may well pull us back together.

As many of us have left our offices, churches, restaurants and schools while the pandemic sweeps the country, there’s been a growing recognition of how much joy and richness was gained in community, how ubiquitous and fulfilling it was.

The absence has been glaring. Of hugs and handshakes and twinkling eyes. Of lively conversation, shared meals, casual hellos. We took the people around us for granted, not in a dismissive way, just in an it’s-always-been-there,” can’t-imagine-it-not-being-there sort of way. Zoom and FaceTime help, but can’t fully capture the magic.

A Future Of Work That Complements Family Life

Abby McCloskey and Angela Rachidi, Institute For Family Studies, April 2, 2020

“In response to the COVID-19 crisis, many workers have traded in their corporate offices for a makeshift workspace at the kitchen table. It’s been an unexpected adjustment, but the new rhythms of teleworking point to a promising future for families—one where flexible work practices support parents and their children alike.”

The American People Need To Know There's A Way Out

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, March 29, 2020

“How we get out of this, no one seems to know. Guidance and projections keep changing. The flu is worse. It’s wartime. It will be done by Easter!

It’s hard to know what to believe, but some things are increasingly clear. One, our current direction is unsustainable. A recession is marked by two quarters of GDP contraction. The pressing question is not whether we are going into one, but whether it will be the deepest in a century.

Goldman Sachs predicts a 24% economic contraction in the second quarter of this year. Unemployment estimates range from 10% to upwards of 20%, which presents not only an economic crisis, but a crisis of societal stability as desperation sets in. The enormous stimulus package will help the bleeding. But we can’t stay at a standstill for long and expect to have an economy when it’s over.”