[National Alliance for Caregiving CEO Grace] Whiting outlined some public sector solutions, which include providing benefits to caregivers, expanding services to caregivers and allowing for paid family leave. Not only can the process of caregiving be an emotional burden, it also places a great financial strain on many.

After delivery, parents are torn between providing the best care for their child versus earning money to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. Mothers push through postpartum pain and ignore doctors’ recommendations by returning to work too early.

The numbers are astounding: 37 million people get no sick days. And that applies to 6 in 10 lower-income workers. Only 14% of people have access to paid family leave at work. A third of working mothers don’t have access to any paid leave.

[D]elaying Social Security translates into a real financial loss; the authors [of the Urban Institute analysis] reckon that parents who took a single 12-week leave would lose about 3% of their future retirement benefits, and those who took four leaves would lose 10%.

Few in the audience had blue-collar jobs like [Carolyn] Davis’s; she spends her workdays tracking inventory and stocking shelves. Still, as a shareholder, Davis, who goes by Cat, had a right to speak. She’s also a mother of two, and she had come to deliver a petition—signed by more than 100,000 associates—to urge Walmart to give workers like her the same family-leave benefits that executives get.

[W]e need to support parents. Parents need paid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act so that they can care for their children; currently the law provides unpaid leave only for employees of companies with 50 or more employees. Additionally, some families need subsidies for child care so that they can thrive in those first years that are often the hardest and most expensive.

The U.S. used to be a world leader in women working. Not anymore.

“I think back to when I was younger when we were sick, how my parents didn’t get to take time off to take care of us,” [Linfield College] sophomore Raul Sanchez said.

[Sen. Heidi] Heitkamp also said the proposed Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, or FAMILY Act, would allow small businesses to offer the same family leave benefits now offered by large businesses. This would help make working for small businesses more attractive.

Children spending more quality time with their fathers has a cascade of social benefits, according to the Swedish government, but it also allows women to pursue their careers and become more active members of the workforce.

Being openly dedicated to the betterment of employees and their families remains a gold standard for Catholic organizations that align themselves with the Catholic mission. Some Catholic companies have begun to go beyond FMLA regulations to further support employees and their families.

The bill would also make caregivers of a sibling or grandchild eligible. It would increase the amount that people who [earn] less than double the minimum wage can receive when claiming temporary caregiver insurance.

One positive aspect of so many millennials taking on caregiving responsibilities, experts say, is that it may force lawmakers and companies to start paying attention.

Jersey City municipal workers will be eligible for paid parental leave, thanks to an executive order signed by Mayor Steve Fulop.

If Utah offered paid family leave, [Jasmine] Parker says she’d have a buffer — time to deal with crises in her own immediate family, time for a vacation, time to just breathe. “It would be amazing,” she says. “I think I’m probably like a lot of people. Sometimes, it feels pretty overwhelming.”

We should not be asking families to choose between losing their income and caring for family members when they are ill.

“We seem to have this view that paid family leave is some sort of touchy-feely women’s only policy,” [Sen.] Duckworth said. “This isn’t just an entitlement. It’s really an economic imperative for our nation.”

Having enough time to establish a breastfeeding relationship prior to returning to work represents one of a multitude of reasons why paid family medical leave is an issue central to the health of New Mexican families.

Jody Heymann, the study’s senior author, says it’s clear that if the U.S. implemented a program aligning with the study’s findings, “families would be less likely to fall into poverty, women would have better economic outcomes in terms of their earnings, which contributes to family earnings, and the U.S. would be every bit as able to compete and have as low an unemployment rate.”

When you look at the people who are able to take unpaid leave with the FMLA, more than three-quarters must do so to care for their own health or that of a seriously ill family member. We need a national policy that covers everyone.