By Joell Edwards
If something was easy to do, it would have already been done. That is especially true for paid family and medical leave.
Although legislative bills promoting paid family and medical leave are now dead, there are four House and Senate resolutions and concurrent resolutions (HCR 179, HR 175, SCR 145 and SR 117) now being considered to establish a working group composed of legislators, family advocates, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. The working group could figure out once and for all how to enact and implement paid family and medical leave to support Hawaii families.
We need this now more than ever, especially as we see federal support for the most vulnerable vanish. Those on the neighbor islands are feeling especially alienated.
On Kauai, we’ve had our fair share of floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters, and these incidents have drawn our community closer together. The community I live in was directly affected by the 2018 floods and landslides, and we all locked arms and literally pulled ourselves out of the mud.
Like the rest of Hawaii, we are a tough, resilient community and take care of one another. My family and I were able to reopen a 120-year-old market that was closed after the floods, and we made it our mission to provide local healthy food and a gathering place for encouragement and support.
We may not have natural disasters frequently, but it seems every day on Kauai there is a crisis with a new GoFundMe site because someone has a medical condition and urgently needs financial support.
We don’t have easy access to health care specialists. Residents on our rural island must take time off to travel to Oahu for our medical services. So many families must accompany their loved ones to Oahu and leave them in the hospital alone because they cannot afford to miss work without financial consequences.
We should do everything in our power to help those who need time off for medical leave or to take care of a keiki or kupuna. Paid family and medical leave would greatly relieve the financial stress that’s especially hard on neighbor island families.
I was provided this benefit as a young mother in California, when caring for my children while simultaneously caring for my mom and my husband who was hospitalized and in medical recovery without work for over a year. California started its statewide paid family and medical leave program more than 20 years ago, and I can attest that it is a huge help for working families.
Now that I am a small business owner, my goal is to employ Kauai residents at a living wage and would like my employees to have paid family and medical leave to take care of their ohana or when they have medical issues themselves.
It’s not easy running a small business. The triple net leases are especially hard financially and the increase in property taxes, insurance costs more than doubling this year, and the increase in the price of goods from our vendors all make it even more difficult.
A statewide paid family and medical leave program would be less costly for employers than cobbling together piecemeal solutions when my employees face serious illnesses or caregiving needs.
The steps proposed in the legislative resolutions offer us all a pathway for a better quality of life. We hope our lawmakers consider our unique neighbor island challenges and support the resolutions to explore how to implement paid family and medical leave for all Hawaii residents.
Joēll Edwards and her family own and operate Wainiha Country Market.
