Demand Congress pass Paid Leave for All working families!
[ [link removed] ]Take Action Now
[ [link removed] ]SIGN NOW

Dear Friend,

[ [link removed] ]→ Sign on and tell Congress that paid family and medical leave supports
working families.

Access to paid family and medical leave is crucial for working families.
And let’s be very clear, paid leave is NOT a vacation, it is crucial to
the future of our families, a pathway to economic recovery, job security
and long term health. It also allows businesses to thrive because a
national program takes the burden of covering time out of the labor force
off the individual business alone. 

Yet recent data from the “U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics National
Compensation: Employee Benefits” survey shows that 23 percent of private
sector workers had access to paid family leave while only 40 percent of
civilian workers had access to temporary disability insurance. [1]  This
is shameful. Working people deserve more and they deserve better. We need
paid leave for all.

Now more than ever, families need access to workplace policies like paid
family and medical leave that allow workers to recover from critical
illness, be there for their loved ones when a serious health crisis
emerges -- and be there to bond with and recover from the birth of a new
baby, particularly as 1 in 4 moms have to go back to work within 2 weeks
because we don’t have this critical program as every other industrialized
nation does. For far too long, families have been forced to choose between
earning a wage and being present for their families when a medical
emergency occurs or a new child arrives. 

The time is NOW to pass a fully robust and permanent paid family/medical
leave program.

[ [link removed] ]→ Let’s keep the pressure on! Urge Congress to pass a robust and fully
funded comprehensive paid family and medical leave program in the Build
Back Better Act.

Did you know that paid family/medical leave is one of the most widely
supported policies in the country? Even undecided voters are more likely
to support paid leave than they are to strongly support the building and
repairing of roads and bridges. [2] Why? Because paid family/medical leave
is one of the most effective tools we have for ensuring public health and
economic recovery. Workers and families are losing out on wages due to a
lack of affordable child care and paid leave. Prior to the pandemic,
families lost $22.5 billion in wages each year due to a lack of paid
family and medical leave. [ [link removed] ]  The cost of doing nothing is too high a
price to bear for working families. 

At some point in your life, you may need paid family/medical leave to not
only recover from childbirth or bond with a new child but to care for an
aging or disabled family member having a health crisis, to deal with the
military deployment of a loved one or to care for your own serious
personal medical needs. Paid family and medical leave is not vacation
time, paid leave is essential to the well-being of millions of families,
it can be the difference between life or death. 

[3]→ Let’s raise our voices and demand that Congress pass paid family and
medical leave for all working families.

The Build Back Better Agenda is an investment in the betterment of all
communities and people. The fact is, there are gender, racial and ethnic
disparities in how workers access and utilize paid leave. The good news is
that there are ways to address this, and it starts with ensuring any paid
family and medical leave program is rooted in gender and racial equity. 

The lack of access to workplace and family friendly policies like paid
family and medical leave have significantly negative impacts for Black and
brown communities. Data shows that Hispanic workers have lower rates of
paid family/medical leave access than their White non-Hispanic
counterparts; [ [link removed] ]  and the paid family/medical leave crisis
disproportionately affects Black, Indigenous and people of color workers -
notably women and their families. [ [link removed] ] Women have borne the brunt of the
pandemic trying to balance the needs of work and critical family
caregiving responsibilities. We cannot continue to leave behind women of
color, we need national policies like paid family/medical leave that will
help address these inequities by increasing women’s labor market
participation, helping workers maintain their incomes and improve the
physical and mental health of new mothers. 

[4]→ Demand Congress act quickly to pass paid family and medical leave
this year. Working families deserve the opportunity to care for their
loved ones when a serious health emergency arises. 

We are working hard to get paid family and medical leave included in the
reconciliation package and across the finish line because we know what it
means for families and communities. The idea of paid leave is not radical,
it’s necessary. Let’s remind Congress that paid family and medical leave
is not a vacation, it’s an investment that will usher in historic change
for our families, our businesses and our economy. 

Thank you for supporting paid leave for all!

- Namatie, Ruth, Kristin, and the whole MomsRising.org/MamásConPoder Team

P.S. Personal experiences are powerful and can make a HUGE difference in
helping elected leaders understand how public policies impact families so
they can move change. We want to hear more from YOU! Can you take a second
and follow the link below to share your personal story about how having,
or NOT having, access to job-protected paid leave has impacted your family
in the pandemic?
[5][link removed]

 

References:

[1] [ [link removed] ]New Analysis: Despite More than a Year of the Coronavirus Pandemic,
Only Modest Gains in the Number of Workers with Access to Paid Family and
Medical Leave 
[2] [ [link removed] ]New Survey Shows Voters in Senate Battleground States Want Paid
Leave Urgently, as Part of Infrastructure Package
[3] [ [link removed] ]The Rising Cost of Inaction on Work-Family Policies
[4] [ [link removed] ]Racial and ethinic disparities in access to and use of paid family
and medical leave; evidence from four nationally representative datasets
[5] [ [link removed] ]Called to Care: A Racially Just Recovery Demands Paid Family and
Medical Leave


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