“An imbalance of power in people in two different positions is a big part of sexual harassment occurring, and I think that there’s probably nowhere that occurs more than in lower-wage jobs,” said ‎Sarah Fleisch Fink, senior counsel for the National Partnership for Women & Families.

“In this past legislative session 31 states had bills introduced,” said Vicki Shabo, vice president of workplace policies and strategies at the National Partnership for Women & Families.

“The distribution of those benefits are skewed towards higher income families, and really paltry for lower income families,” says Vicki Shabo, vice president at the National Partnership for Women & Families. “The overall package is really dismal for working families.”

“This bill is a poorly disguised attempt to take away guaranteed sick days at a time when the evidence that paid sick days standards benefit working people and their families, businesses and communities, as well as our economy and our public health, is strong and growing,” National Partnership President Debra Ness said.

Sexual harassment “often involves an imbalance of power between a perpetrator and the person who is harassed,” said Sarah Fleisch Fink, director of workplace policy and senior counsel for the National Partnership.

Vicki Shabo, vice president at the National Partnership for Women & Families, says that this bill is only a drop in the bucket of support to businesses already taking the lead on this issue. The provision provides “a very small tax credit to businesses that voluntarily provide at least a minimal level, two weeks, of paid family or medical leave,” she said.

“This is really an extraordinary teaching moment for our nation,” said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families. “We are in an environment where the people coming forward, rather than being attacked or villainized, what we are seeing is that their stories are being accorded gravity,” she said.

“For people who are living paycheck to paycheck or have significant debt, the risks of staying home and losing pay or potentially losing their job are far too great,” said Vicki Shabo, vice president for workplace policies and strategies at the National Partnership for Women & Families.

“We applaud the signers of this letter for pushing for a paid leave plan that addresses the full range of care needs people face,” said Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families. “The FAMILY Act is the only paid leave proposal before Congress that would provide protections for workers and families at all stages of life.”

Vice President Vicki Shabo says the National Partnership has been advocating for the Healthy Families Act, a national standard “that guarantees all working people the ability to take time away from their jobs for personal illness, a family member’s illness, to get health care services, and also to deal with the effects of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.”

Those who advocate for expanding paid-leave policies, such as National Partnership for Women & Families President Debra Ness, remain optimistic that it is a matter of if, not when. “Winning paid family and medical leave may finally be inevitable — but how fast we get there remains an open question,” Ness says.