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Ivanka Trump Claims Donald Trump Provides Paid Family Leave, Trump Employees Say, No He Doesn’t

By Christine Beswick
Published on: 05:31 PST, Sep 17, 2016

This week, Ivanka Trump went on the press circuit to promote causes that are dear to her heart, working mothers, child care, and paid family leave. It started with an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, penned by herself, where she spoke of motherhood being the greatest “predictor of wage inequality in our country.” She then posted a picture of herself on Instagram, reading her own op-ed in the green room of Good Morning America.

Her promotional circuit continued with policy speeches at Donald Trump campaign rallies on the subject. It concluded with multiple interviews on the talk show circuit where she proudly proclaimed that the Trump Organization, where she is Executive Vice President, and her own organizations, offer paid family leave to all of their employees.

Except that they don’t, according to the Trump Organization employees interviewed by Huffington Post this week when fact checking those claims. But Ivanka Trump did say on Good Morning America and Fox News this week that the thousands of employees with Trump Organization are provided with paid maternity leave.

In the clip shown here, Megyn Kelly of Fox News asked Ivanka Trump directly that, as the Executive Vice President of Trump Organization, do they offer paid family leave. Ivanka Trump paused before saying yes, and that her own organization has as well “since its inception.”

An investigation on the topic that Huffington Post engaged in involved assessing the human resources handbooks of the Trump Organization at multiple locations, and talking to Trump employees. What the Huffington Post found was that what the Trump Organization actually offers is the minimum federal requirement, which is six weeks of unpaid maternity leave in compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act.

As the Huffington Post wrote, if Ivanka is saying Trump Organization offers paid family leave, “that’s news to employees.”

The Huffington Post checked in on key Trump Organization properties, including the Mar-A-Largo Club in Florida, Trump SoHo, and other New York and Miami locations of Trump’s. All of them said that employees are not offered paid maternity leave.

They are however eligible for what every other worker in America is eligible for, up to 12 weeks unpaid maternity leave for either the adoption or birth of a child, under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The Huffington Post reported that also, in Las Vegas, an “undated” employee handbook says, employees that want a paid leave must use their vacation or personal days for that.

The Vice President of Human Resources for the Trump Organization told the Huffington Post that, we do not offer an “industry leading” 8-week paid family leave at this time, but “policies and practices…vary from property to property.”

Some properties of Trump Organization do offer paid family leave, according to this Vice President of HR reports the Huffington Post. But she declined to say which ones, or when that policy was put in place. A source close to the Trump campaign told the Huffington Post, that policy was put in place for the selected properties “only recently.”

A former employee has commented on the Huffington Post report saying,

“I used to work for the organization and my coworker actually had to go on unemployment for her maternity leave and we were full time employees”

This all comes to light during a week of campaigning where Mr. Trump has been pushing a new policy for a federal six-week-national paid maternity leave policy. His policy is geared only for working mothers. It differs substantially from Hillary Clinton’s proposed policy that offers twice that much paid leave, for any parent, regardless of gender reports Yahoo News.

Under Hillary Clinton’s plan, 12 weeks of paid family leave is offered to any family member that wants to take time off for a new child in the home. The time is not exclusive to new parents, and is also being offered to parents of sick children, or family members that take time off to help care for elderly parents or family members.

It is just that, paid family leave for any family member needing to assist another family member. The Clinton Foundation currently offers a similar plan to all of its employees, but is 12 weeks strictly maternity leave, and 6 weeks paid family leave to family caregivers.

Donald Trump’s plan is specifically maternity leave, and only proposes a six-week leave to come out of a reconfiguring of unemployment insurance benefits reported Yahoo News. Proposals for funding to Hillary Clinton’s plan are to include higher payroll taxes on the “top-end earners” reports Yahoo News.

Ivanka Trump also stated to Megyn Kelly, and multiple other outlets, her own 12-employee organization that designs and sells clothing, also offers eight weeks of paid family leave, to new moms. But the contractor that she uses to design the clothing, including the outfit she wore during her address at the Republican National Convention, does not offer paid family leave reported the Washington Post this Summer.

The Washington Post reported that Ivanka’s clothing company is pitched as, “the ultimate destination for Women Who Work.” But, she only has 12 employees. Ivanka Trump’s 12 employees on United States soil do get paid family leave. But the hundreds that actually make her clothes, do not.

However, Ivanka does not have any managerial discretion with how that company operates. Even so, this gaffe of the always poised and accurate Ivanka Trump was not the only “media hiccup” of the day this week reports Vanity Fair. The Inquisitr previously reported on another, where Ivanka Trump fumbled a little bit during a phone interview with Cosmopolitan Magazine on the same topic.

She was asked if same-sex couples would be permitted to use Trump’s proposed paid family leave plan. Trump’s plan would not allow same-sex couples to be eligible. The interviewer then asked Ivanka Trump to discuss Trump’s comments made in 2004 about how “motherhood was bad for business,” reports Vanity Fair.

Ivanka Trump responded saying she did not want to answer negative questions. She did answer “several more questions” before cutting the interview call short reports Vanity Fair. Watch Ivanka Trump’s interview with Good Morning America right here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-8s7EY5ajo

New York Magazine describes the press week for Ivanka Trump as Ivanka having “trouble under scrutiny” and says she is “just as defensive and dishonest as her father.” New York Magazine also called her “creepy and hypocritical” after Ivanka Trump slammed Hillary Clinton for not having paid family leave proposals, or child care proposals on her website.

Hillary Clinton does in fact have paid family and medical leave plan proposals listed on her website, where she says, “It’s time to guarantee paid family leave and medical leave in America.” She has also mapped out on Twitter how America compares to other countries that do offer paid family leave. How important is paid family leave to you in Elections 2016?

[Featured image by Evan Vucci/AP Images]

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