Archive for the 'Work & Family' Category

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

In a major victory in the effort to increase access to paid sick days, the New York City Council has passed a measure that would guarantee approximately one million workers the right to earn the paid sick time they need. This is a momentous achievement for a strong and dedicated coalition that has been working for more than four years to bring paid sick days to our nation’s most populous city.

The bill now goes to Mayor Bloomberg who has the opportunity to support working families and promote the city’s health by signing it into law. There is no excuse for him not to do so: The bill has the support of the majority of New Yorkers, the speaker and the City Council; and paid sick days have been shown to benefit workers, businesses, public health and local economies.

With this historic step forward in New York City, there is now undeniable momentum for paid sick days across the country. From San Francisco to Washington, D.C., Seattle, Connecticut and, soon, Portland, Oregon, workers, businesses, advocates and lawmakers have come together to enact this common sense policy. And campaigns in support of similar measures exist in nearly 20 other states and cities.

It is time for members of Congress to recognize the growing need and demand for paid sick days by advancing a federal standard like the Healthy Families Act. The bill has already been introduced in Congress, and 86 percent of voters say they support the national paid sick days standard it would provide. It would go a long way toward making the nation truly family friendly.

Congratulations to the strong coalition that made this victory in New York City possible today. Soon, the city will be a true national leader on this issue.

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

Cross-posted from What To Expect.

The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee some type of paid time off for employees, despite ample evidence that paid leave policies benefit workers, businesses, and the economy.

Having a baby is the most expensive health event for families during childbearing years; 13 percent of all families become poor within a month of delivery. But there’s another side. Paid leave offers major benefits — both to families and employers (see graphic, right).

As you can see, new mothers who take paid leave are more likely to return to — and stay at — their jobs and even experience wage increases. And they are less likely to need food stamps or public assistance.

Paid leave also has significant health benefits for new mothers and their babies. New mothers who have paid leave are more likely than those who don’t to take the six to eight weeks of leave recommended by doctors. And newborns of mothers with access to paid leave are more likely to be breastfed, receive medical check-ups, and get critical immunizations. The mere presence of a parent can reduce an ill child’s hospital stay — and help prevent future health care problems and the costs associated with them.

We also know that access to paid leave sharply increases the rate at which fathers take leave when a child is born, providing significant benefits for children and families. Studies show that when fathers take leave, they’re more likely to be involved in the long-term, direct care of their children.

These data are compelling, but people and their stories are what make the case for a national paid leave standard so strong. If Audrey from California had been able to take paid leave when her husband was hit by a car just days after her first child was born, she might not have had to burn through the family’s savings or turn to public assistance to survive. In Audrey’s case, the FMLA protected her job at a critical moment — but it could not provide the full support her family needed.

It is unacceptable that experiences like Audrey’s are so common. And they really only scratch the surface of the many reasons people need leave — which include pregnancy and childbirth but also serious illnesses and myriad caregiving responsibilities. It has been 20 years since Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the only law that allows millions of mothers, fathers, adult children, and other hardworking people to care for their health and their families without having to worry about losing their jobs or their health insurance. It is long past time for lawmakers to take the next step by expanding the FMLA to cover more workers who need leave for more reasons, and by establishing the national paid family and medical leave insurance program the nation urgently needs.

Read some of the real stories of families whose lives have been impacted by the Family and Medical Leave Act here, and read the real stories of moms who could have benefited from a national paid leave standard here.

Then tell your members of Congress it’s time for a family-friendly America here. To find out if you’re eligible for leave under the FMLA, or to get involved in efforts to expand the law and pass a national paid leave program, visit www.NationalPartnership.org/FMLA.

Debra L. Ness is the president of the National Partnership for Women & Families , which drafted and led the fight to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) 20 years ago. The organization promotes fairness in the workplace, access to quality affordable health care, and policies that help women and men meet the dual demands of work and family. For more than three decades, Ness has been a strong advocate for fairness and social justice, possessing a unique understanding of the issues that face women and families at home, in the workplace, and in the health care arena.

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

Cross-posted from What To Expect.

While the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has helped more than 100,000 families take the time they need to care for their families, a striking 40% of the U.S. workforce isn’t eligible for the 12 weeks of unpaid leave the FMLA provides because their employers have fewer than 50 employees, or because they haven’t been working for their employers for at least a year and put in a minimum of 1,250 hours. Millions more are eligible, but they simply can’t afford to take unpaid time off.

Hope from Texas wasn’t eligible to take FMLA leave when her daughter was born because her employer was too small. Fortunately, her employer allowed her to take eight weeks of unpaid leave — but there was no guarantee that her job would be there when she returned, and she had to rush back to work despite medical complications, post-partum depression, and a blood infection, because she couldn’t afford to lose any more income.

Stephanie from Wisconsin was the sole breadwinner for her family when her twins were born three months early. She was hospitalized for two months and wasn’t eligible for the FMLA. Since she couldn’t afford to lose any income by taking unpaid leave, she went back to work right away — commuting two hours each day so she could spend nights at the hospital.

Amber from Georgia was only able to take six days off of work when her son was born because she didn’t qualify to take FMLA leave and her husband just lost his job. And Claudia, from Illinois, was eligible for FMLA leave when she had her second child, but she could only afford to take three weeks. When she went back to work, she was so stressed that she found herself unable to pump breast milk.

These are just a handful of stories that make clear what we at the National Partnership for Women & Families have known for two decades: The FMLA provides an important safety net for many workers. But it was always meant to be just a first step toward a truly family-friendly America. People should not have to choose between a paycheck and their own health or the health of their families when illness strikes or a new baby arrives. But in our country, they do. And families are suffering as a result.

It is long past time for lawmakers to take the next step by expanding the FMLA and establishing the national paid family and medical leave insurance program the nation urgently needs.

Tomorrow, we’ll share the real, tangible benefits — for moms, babies, and even employers — of paid family leave, along with the ongoing efforts to expand the FMLA.

Debra L. Ness is the president of the National Partnership for Women & Families , which drafted and led the fight to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) 20 years ago. The organization promotes fairness in the workplace, access to quality affordable health care, and policies that help women and men meet the dual demands of work and family. For more than three decades, Ness has been a strong advocate for fairness and social justice, possessing a unique understanding of the issues that face women and families at home, in the workplace, and in the health care arena.

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

Cross-posted from MomsRising.

Susan, a single mother in Missouri, has a 10-year-old son who has pneumonia. She wants to stay home and care for him, but she cannot because her boss refuses to let her take the day off and she is terrified that, if she misses work, she will lose her job. She has no choice but to leave him home alone, breaking away from work as often as possible to call and check on him.

When Andrea’s seven-year-old daughter gets pinkeye, the Arizona mother is told to bring the sick child to work with her – at a school, no less. Andrea has to leave her daughter in a small room all day, checking on her regularly and worrying about the infection spreading to school staff and students.

Susan and Andrea are far from alone. They are just two of the nearly 40 million people in this country who cannot earn a single paid sick day. Millions more cannot use them to care for a sick child. For these mothers and fathers, having to choose between job and family is the norm. And it is simply unacceptable.

Fortunately, we have seen recent glimmers of hope that suggest a growing awareness of the plight of workers like Susan and Andrea, and the urgent need for public policies to help.

For the past several years, cities and states have been advancing paid sick days proposals. San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have had paid sick days laws in place since 2007 and 2008, respectively. In 2011, Connecticut became the first state to guarantee workers this basic right. And Seattle recently passed a paid sick days law, which took effect in 2012.

These laws paved the way for a flurry of activity that led last month to the approval of a paid sick days law in Portland, Oregon, City Council passage of a similar measure in Philadelphia for the second time (although Mayor Nutter vetoed it again), and an agreement in New York City that will lead to close to one million workers getting the right to earn paid sick days by the time the law is fully implemented in 2015.

These victories result from the tireless efforts of workers, businesses, advocates and lawmakers across the country. But the sad reality is that they won’t make life better for Susan or Andrea or for millions of workers like them who do not live in a city or state that gives workers the right to earn paid sick days. Their states, Missouri and Arizona, do not have paid sick days laws and, until recently, federal lawmakers have failed to even consider a national paid sick days standard.

That changed last week when members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workforce discussed H.R. 1406 – anti-worker legislation disguised as an effort to give workers more flexibility. The bill would cause real harm to workers; it would mean a pay cut without any guarantee of the time off workers need. But in the course of discussing this misguided and dangerous proposal, lawmakers acknowledged experiences like those of Susan and Andrea – and that the country needs policy solutions. And they had an unprecedented discussion of the Healthy Families Act, the federal paid sick days proposal.

As small a step as that was, it was a first for this Congress.  And it comes on the heels of local victories and significant momentum around and support for paid sick days policies. Lawmakers at the federal level need to seize this moment and pass the Healthy Families Act.

The time is now for federal action on paid sick days. Mothers, fathers, family members and workers across the country deserve it.