Josh Earnest Opens Up About Fatherhood in Pitch for Obama’s Paid Leave Proposal
Ben Smith /
How does Josh Earnest balance being the White House press secretary and a father?
This week at the Center for American Progress, President Obama’s spokesman shared his thoughts about balancing a high-profile career with the job of raising a small child in Washington, D.C.
“Men feel pressure to have a genuine home life,” Earnest told host Daniella Gibbs Léger of the Center for American Progress. “I have a desire to be a parent, but it leads to pressure even without a high-profile job like mine. Luckily, I have supportive bosses and maintain a strict schedule. No one will make me leave but me.”
The event at the liberal think tank was used to advocate “paid family leave, paid sick days and flexibility arrangements” for men. Earnest used the opportunity to promote President Obama’s budget, released earlier this week.
“Societal pressure and understanding bosses help,” he said, “but in the president’s budget, there is more money for paid leave when a child gets sick and an increase in childcare. While I am lucky, many workers don’t have these types of influences in their workplace. That is the major role for policy.”
Obama’s proposal for paid sick leave sparked debate about the unintended consequences it may cause.
The Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk, a senior policy analyst in labor economics, last month noted that 91 percent of businesses already provide some form of sick leave.
“The popularity of Obama’s paid sick leave proposal depends on workers not realizing it ultimately comes out of their paychecks,” Sherk wrote for The Daily Signal. “If the president’s proposal becomes law, many workers will lose the equivalent of seven days of pay a year.”
Following Earnest’s remarks, panelists debated the role of families in the workforce.
“The ideals of being a good father are changing,” said Erin Rehel, consultant at Advisory Board Co. “More men are involved in childcare and domestic labor. Stay-at-home dads are also on the rise and studies show an increase in worker-family conflict for men.”
Loren Harris, director of family economic security at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, said, “In the fight for gender equality, we often miss men.”
While the panelists acknowledged the culture within workplaces has shifted, they also argued for more government intervention.
“When you make paid leave available to fathers, you get more applicants,” Rehel argued. “It makes men more active parents.”