Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, said the passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was a win for gender and racial equity. She added, “For far too long, pregnant workers have gone without the critical protections many people need to maintain a healthy pregnancy: protections like the ability to take bathroom breaks during a shift, sit down while working a cash register, or pause to take a drink of water to stay hydrated.”
“According to the National Partnership for Women & Families, “only 25% of United States workers have paid family leave through their employers, and just 41% have access to personal medical leave through employer-provided short-term disability insurance.””
“The National Partnership for Women & Families has a guide that recommends ways employers can better support pregnant employees on the job. For example, extending accommodations to “all workers, regardless of part-time or temporary status,” not forcing workers to accept unnecessary accommodations, providing paid sick leave and family leave, not docking employees for tardy arrival, and eliminating ‘just-in-time’ scheduling, which gives employees very little notice of their shifts.”
“Access to paid leave helps our economy and helps keep people in the jobs they need so they can care for the families they love without jeopardizing their economic security. Yet 26 million workers currently lack access to paid sick days, as reported last month by the National Partnership for Women & Families. That includes 70 percent of the lowest wage workers, including many child care early educators.”
“We have more pro-worker, pro-family, [Democratic] trifecta states now with the latest election,” Sharita Gruberg, vice president of economic justice at the National Partnership for Women and Families, said. “We will continue to see states not wait for the federal government.”
According to The National Partnership for Women & Families, the current gender wage gap is “even larger when measured over the long term because women are often pushed to spend time out of the workforce, in part due to caregiving.” This is compounded by the perception that workers are less committed to their jobs when they take parental leave, especially for men.
Vasu Reddy, senior policy counsel for economic justice at the National Partnership for Women and Families, says that opponents of paid leave include big businesses, trade associations, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “These groups continue to say that paid leave will be a burden on small businesses, but it’s not true,” she says. “We have reams of evidence to show that paid leave does not have a negative impact on small companies. Every state that has passed it has seen reduced worker turnover and less need to recruit and train new personnel. In fact, a recent survey found that at least 70 percent of small business owners support paid family and medical leave.”
“Paid Leave for All Action and the National Partnership for Women and Families Action Fund will release a scorecard ranking members of Congress on their support of paid leave.”
“The National Partnership for Women & Families said more than 4 million Ohio workers are without paid family leave as of February of this year.”
“But I wanted psychological and economic explanations of what might be going on, too. Part of the problem is that the (often inadequate) social and emotional support that exists has been further frayed, and it seems like no one is coming to mend it. For example, child care, which should be considered vital infrastructure, is still not functioning at prepandemic levels, according to Katherine Gallagher Robbins, a senior fellow at the National Partnership for Women & Families.”
Latinx employees reporting their employers offer no form of paid time off, according to a 2021 study by the National Partnership for Women & Families.
“Our nation’s leaders must stop ignoring what the data tell us time and time again — that paid family and medical leave is a critical support that families need, it is what Americans want, and it is what they deserve,” Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, said in a statement.
“In addition to offering adequate paid leave, employers should check to make sure their leave policies reflect the fact that families come in all forms,” said Jessica Mason, senior policy analyst for the National Partnership for Women and Families, a nonprofit advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. “Can your employees use their sick leave to care for an aunt or grandfather, as well as a spouse or for chosen family, which is especially important to support workers with disabilities and LGBTQ workers?”
“Lelaine Bigelow, the vice president for social impact and congressional relationships for the National Partnership for Women and Families, also listened to the focus groups and said it stuck out to her that women really want to hear from politicians on this issue.”
“For women, that’s the double whammy — most of those workers are women, and most of the people who need those supports to enter the work force themselves are women,” said Katherine Gallagher Robbins, a senior fellow with the National Partnership for Women and Families.
“While the economy has recovered significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic began, analysis by the National Partnership for Women & Families shows that the economy has lost 497,000 caregiving jobs since February 2020, harming both paid and unpaid caregivers alike.”
“According to the “Fathers Need Paid Family and Medical Leave” article published in the June 2022 issue of National Partnership for Women & Families, one study found only one in 20 fathers in professional jobs took more than two weeks off after their most recent child was born, and three out of four took one week or less.”
