Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business documents the history and impact of California's paid family leave program, the first of its kind in the United States, which began in 2004.

Ruth Milkman is Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and Academic Director of CUNY’s Murphy Labor Institute. She is the author of several books, including the prizewinning Gender at Work and L.A. Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the U.S. Labor Movement. She is the editor of Organizing Immigrants and coeditor of Rebuilding Labor and Working for Justice, all from Cornell. Eileen Appelbaum is Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. She is the coauthor of Manufacturing Advantage: Why Higher Performance Work Systems Pay Off and The New American Workplace: Transforming Work Systems in the United States, both from Cornell.

These books can be recommended to academicsstudents and policy makers. Milkman and Appelbaum's examination of one policy development in one place is necessarily narrower in focus but offers more depth than Kröger and Yeandle’s cross-national analysis.

Amy Armenia:

In Unfinished Business, Ruth Milkman and Eileen Appelbaum tell the story of the political struggle that led to the advent of [Paid Family Leave] and explore the effects and limitations of the program in the first several years following its implementation. The modest length of this book is deceptive, as the authors manage to convey the past, present, and future of this policy with great depth and the support of several fascinating data sources.. Since state-level policies are often used as testing ground for changes to federal policy, this book is necessary reading for advocates of national paid family leave in the United States.

Candace Howes:

I believe the book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand and overcome the challenges to implementing successful work-family policies in the United States. As the authors suggest in their title, considerable unfinished business remains both in California and in the nation as a whole.

Janet Gornickco, author of Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment:

Ruth Milkman and Eileen Appelbaum provide a perceptive and lively account of the passage, implementation, and impact of the United States' first paid family leave law, passed in California in 2002. Unfinished Business assesses the initial decade of this landmark law, revealing a complex mix of success and disappointment: employers have reacted more positively than expected but the equalization of access to paid leave has not come to pass. The authors' keen observations about the economics and politics of the policy process will compel a diverse audience of academics and advocates, as well as policy practitioners working at both the state and national level.

Heather Boushey, Chief Economist, Center for American Progress, coeditor of The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything:

Unfinished Business adds depth to our knowledge about how to craft and implement a new social insurance program that addresses the needs of today's families. Ruth Milkman and Eileen Appelbaum have conducted extensive quantitative and qualitative research that illuminates the effects of California's Paid Family Leave program on families, workers and employers. This is an important book and a must read for anyone who cares about making sure that everyone has time to care for themselves and their loved ones.