In 2015 groups such as the National Partnership for Women and Families hope to close gaps in federal workplace protections to address the needs of pregnant workers. They are urging Congress to pass the Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act to achieve this critical step.
(Map data courtesy of the National Partnership for Women & Families)
“What we often hear is that women think they have a right to paid maternity leave, but in actuality only 60 percent of workers are even eligible for unpaid leave,” Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women & Families,’ tells Yahoo! Parenting.
Nationwide, three states and sixteen cities have passed paid sick days laws. At the same time, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families, “nearly four in 10 private sector workers can’t earn paid sick days.”
As of November, 16 cities and three states have paid sick leave ordinances, according to a report from the Philadelphia Mayor’s Task Force on Paid Sick Leave. But some states are passing pre-emption laws that prohibit municipalities from establishing sick leave policies — up to 11 from 2011 through 2014, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.
“Every family in America has a stake in the outcome of this case,” said Judith L. Lichtman, a senior advisor to the National Partnership for Women and Families, which submitted a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of 12 groups committed to maternal and fetal health.
(Statistics provided by the National Partnership for Women & Families)
According to a 2012 poll commissioned by the National Partnership for Women and Families, 86 percent of Americans support paid leave.
“Oregon is entirely blue,” Vicki Shabo, vice president at the National Partnership for Women & Families, pointed out. “Paid sick days is something they’ve been working on for a long time.”
The nonprofit National Partnership for Women and Families has pushed for paid sick time laws, which it considers “basic minimum protections that working families need, so they won’t have to lose a job or forfeit income when they have the flu or a family member is sick,” says Vicki Shabo, the organization’s vice president.
On Nov. 24, the Center for American Progress, the National Women’s Law Center and the National Partnership for Women & Families hosted a webinar on pregnancy job discrimination and Young v. UPS. Several experts, including Michele Jawando, Rachel Lyons, Diane Feldman and Emily Martin, discussed the case, the historical context of pregnancy discrimination and information on how to take action—and it’s clear that Young has already made a difference for pregnant workers.
Data on the expansion of Medicaid, as policies towards maternity leave, sick days and time off from work came from the National Partnership for Women and Families.
Only 12 percent of U.S. workers have access to paid family leave through their employers, and nearly 40 percent of private-sector workers – and 80 percent of low-wage workers – don’t have a single paid sick day, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.
“Lack of access to paid family and medical leave in this country is a serious issue, and it deserves serious attention from Congress.”
The United States has no national paid sick day policy, which means that 40 percent of the workforce — more than 40 million private sector workers — lose income when they stay home with their kids, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.
It takes barely three unpaid sick days to threaten the ability of a typical low-wage worker to afford groceries, rent and other necessities, said Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
“We’re the only economically developed country in the world that doesn’t have paid sick days,” says Vicki Shabo, a vice president at the National Partnership.
“Even employers that do have policies, about 40% of workers say they have penalties, demerits, for taking a sick day,” Vice President of the National Partnership for Women & Families, Vicki Shabo said.
Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, said the law’s passage represents “a pivotal moment for the country and a historic first step for California.”
An April report by the National Partnership for Women and Families, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that advocates for such policies, said that at least five other U.S. cities had passed laws requiring paid sick leave.
