New parents face the 'social insecurity' of our time, so let's help We have a plan that lets new parents use their Social Security benefits for parental leave

Marco Rubio and Ann Wagner | Opinion contributors

Upon signing the Social Security Act into law in 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “the civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure … we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family.”

Over 80 years later, this still rings true.

Falling rates of marriage and childbirth, coupled with the loss of stable, good-paying employment in a rapidly shifting global economy are making young families socially and financially insecure. Today, having a child can be an income shock matched only by college tuition or a down payment on a home.

Far too many new parents take on new debt or fall onto welfare programs just to pay for their basic living costs after having a child. Stories abound of mothers returning to work just days after giving birth.

The 'social insecurity of our time'

It is estimated that just over one in 10 workers receives paid family leave from their employers, and those who do tend to be in highly paid and educated professions. This means the problems stemming from financial insecurity around having kids, such as increased debt, welfare receipt, reduced birth weight and negative cognitive outcomes for children and increased family instability are increasingly concentrated among middle- and working-class moms and dads — the backbone of our country.

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This sad reality threatens our nation’s ability to provide for safe and healthy moms and kids during one of the most important periods of their lives. It makes it harder for young Americans to start families and weakens the family — the bedrock institution of our society.

It is the social insecurity of our time.

We need a national policy to increase access to paid parental leave for new parents. Previous proposals, emulating the approach of some European countries, have tried to accomplish this by increasing taxes or mandates on businesses. Those options would cut the pay and employment of the very people we want to help, and make families of all shapes and sizes subsidize one parenting model over all others.

Proposed bill to financially support parents

We, however, propose a new approach. This week, Senator Marco Rubio is introducing the Economic Security for New Parents Act, which would give parents the option to pull a portion of their future Social Security benefits to finance paid parental leave. In exchange for delaying their retirement by three to six months, parents would receive a benefit roughly equal to the amount they’re giving up later. Rep. Ann Wagner will introduce a similar proposal in the House in September.

Like Social Security, the benefits under our plans would be most generous to working class families. Parents taking the option would receive monthly payments that will help cover costs like rent, groceries and new baby supplies during a time of significant income constraints. The benefit will also be transferable between parents in the household. And unlike other paid parental leave proposals, this option would be available to working and stay-at-home moms and dads alike.

Most parents, including those who choose to stay at home to have and raise children for an extended period, work before, and often after, having kids. In one way or another, all parents take leave from their previous employment when they have children, because raising children is itself a job — the most important job anyone will ever have.

The financial constraints workers face in the first few weeks after having a child and those after turning 65 years old are not equal. Our proposal would be a consistent application of Social Security’s original principle — to provide assistance to dependents in our care — to the challenges of today.

Marco Rubio is a Republican senator from Florida. Follow him on Twitter: @MarcoRubio. Ann Wagner is a Republican representative from Missouri. Follow her on Twitter: @RepAnnWagner.