Demand Congress pass Paid Leave for All working families! SIGN NOW

Dear Friend,

→ 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.

→ 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. [3]  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. 

→ 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; [4]  and the paid family/medical leave crisis disproportionately affects Black, Indigenous and people of color workers - notably women and their families. [5] 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. 

→ 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? https://action.momsrising.org/survey/Caretaking_Stories

References:

[1] 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] New Survey Shows Voters in Senate Battleground States Want Paid Leave Urgently, as Part of Infrastructure Package
[3] The Rising Cost of Inaction on Work-Family Policies
[4] Racial and ethinic disparities in access to and use of paid family and medical leave; evidence from four nationally representative datasets
[5] Called to Care: A Racially Just Recovery Demands Paid Family and Medical Leave

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