Letter to the editor: Make a better future for Ohio by supporting paid leave legislation

As college students across the country prepare to embark on their careers post-graduation, they are making it clear that family-friendly benefits are an important piece of their job decisions. Offering paid family leave is becoming crucial for employers to attract and keep young talent.

Liz Brett, one of our interns and a public affairs student at The Ohio State University, makes this case for paid leave in her Letter to the Editor published in the Lantern this past weekend. She stresses the importance of creating policies in Ohio that make our state a place where young people will want to work, live, and start a family. Here’s a quick look at what she had to say:

“This is not the future I’d like to see in Ohio or the U.S. When I go job hunting, I should be able to focus on finding a job with great pay and good hours, rather than just hoping a company will see me as a person and understand that I need to balance the demands of work and needs of my family and my own health. I shouldn’t have to be concerned that an employer might hire a male counterpart instead of me, due to the cost liability of my ability to reproduce.”
She goes on to call on her fellow students to help create the future workplace environments they want to be a part of by taking action in support of the paid leave legislation currently pending in the state legislature. Read Liz’s full letter here.