The time is now. Congress MUST include comprehensive paid family and medical leave in the Build Back Better plan and pass it quickly.

The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women and Black women have been hardest hit. Due to societal norms, women are most often tasked with caregiving responsibilities. And women and moms of color do most of that work: 61 percent of caregivers are women and 61 percent of caregivers identify as non-Hispanic White, 17 percent identify as Hispanic or Latino, 14 percent as non-Hispanic African-American or Black, 5 percent as Asian American and Pacific Islander and 3 percent identify as multiracial or another race/ethnicity. [1] The emotional, physical and economic cost of providing paid and unpaid family care is high, and without policies like paid family and medical leave, working families will continue to struggle - forced to choose between the jobs they need and the families they love.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the economy has lost 563,800 jobs across three care industries; child care, nursing and residential care, and home health care but these losses fell disproportionately on women, who lost 258,300 caregiving jobs. [2] These job losses were due to a variety of reasons, but one thing is clear, failing to support women and BIPOC women in their roles as caregivers places them at a disadvantage. Failing to provide family friendly policies like those that are included in the Build Back Better Agenda ensures women, BIPOC women and families will be forced to make impossible choices between providing care for their loved ones and economic security.

Investing in families like yours and mine is at the heart of the care infrastructure and the Build Back Better Agenda. Caregiving does not happen in silos, at some point in each of our lives, we will need to provide or receive care. And one of the most comprehensive ways to do that is through paid family and medical leave. Paid leave will allow working families to take paid time off when a birthing parent needs to recover from childbirth, or for parents to bond with their new child, it’s needed 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. Investing in our families also means investing in our economy and the prosperity of our nation.

Paid family/medical leave is not a singular issue that only affects new parents, paid leave is essential for everyone. Caregiving is the work that makes all other work possible and providing paid time off to working families so they have the time to care is vital for our nation. Access to paid leave is not universal, low wage workers are more likely to lack access to paid leave while among the highest paid private sector workers, only 38 percent have paid family leave through their employers. [3] The lack of paid family and medical leave in our nation continues to push women and millions of people out of jobs, with moms and moms of color experiencing associated health and economic harms. We need a change.

We have an opportunity RIGHT NOW to SPEAK UP and SPEAK OUT about our need for paid family and medical leave!

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

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