“If you look at median wages for full-time earners, it’s higher for fathers than it is for mothers,” Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women & Families in Washington, D.C., tells Yahoo Parenting.

“Those of us who are lucky enough to have paid family leave through our employers — which is just 13 percent of U.S. workers — have the security that comes with knowing we can stay home when a baby is born or a loved one needs care without our income plummeting or our jobs disappearing,” said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

“Access to paid leave within that company is so bifurcated between upper management and everyone else. And that’s what we’re seeing in the U.S. as well,” Vicki Shabo, vice president at the National Partnership for Women & Families, said.

When working with the National Partnership for Women & Families, the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University found families, businesses, and the public all benefit from paid parental leave. Generous leave led to “greater labor force attachment; increased wages for women, reduced spending in the form of employee replacement costs; and reduce public assistance, such as food stamps.”

“And that’s why I announced today, during a speech at the National Partnership for Women and Families’ annual luncheon, that Care.com is proud to support these important pieces of legislation,” said Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder, chairwoman and CEO of Care.com.

“Companies that violate labor laws will face consequences,” said Debra Ness, executive director of the National Partnership of Women and Families. “That, in turn, will help prevent millions of workers from being subject to harmful or unlawful treatment,” Ness said. Her group has campaigned for the new rules, because they would especially help underpaid woman workers.

“Today’s actions from the Labor Department and the FAR Council are good news for workers, taxpayers and the nation—and a major step forward in ensuring only companies that abide by our nation’s labor laws get federal contracts,” Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, said.

In 1993, when the FMLA finally passed, Republican Representative John Boehner, serving his first term in Congress, predicted it would cause the “demise” of U.S. business. “People thought we were crazy, verging on communism, it was going to be the end of free enterprise,” said Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

“What the secretary has done has started an important conversation about leave policies,” said Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington D.C.