Today, I was honored to join a distinguished group of scholars, advocates, government officials, and legal and policy experts to discuss an issue of critical importance to working women and families in this country: discrimination based on pregnancy and caregiving.
There are more than 10 million restaurant workers in the United States. The majority are women. These are the hosts and hostesses who greet us, the waiters and waitresses who serve us, the bartenders who fill our drink orders, the attendants and dishwashers who clean up after us, set up our tables, and more.
That’s how long it’s been since the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was signed into law.
On Wednesday morning, at an event sponsored by the Center for American Progress, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) described for the first time sweeping new legislation that he plans to introduce this spring: the Rebuild America Act.
2011 was a historic year in the effort to guarantee workers the right to earn paid sick days.
Retail is the nation’s second-largest sector and one of the fastest-growing industries in the country.
At a time when working families are struggling, the economy is in trouble, and the need for family friendly workplace policies is high, a groundbreaking new study demonstrates that paid leave is good for working families, businesses and our economy.
It may be the single most important law ever passed to address the needs of workers trying to meet their work and family responsibilities.
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral argument today in Coleman v. Maryland Court of Appeals – a case that could erode the right of millions of state workers to take job-protected, unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) when faced with a serious illness.
It’s not literally the 99 percent versus the privileged few, but it’s one of the most noteworthy divides I have seen.
This year, we have seen incredible momentum in the fight for paid sick days laws.
Nearly 20 years ago, passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was a major milestone in the effort to help families meet their work and family needs.
Some things are simply unthinkable. Congress failing to protect the basic benefits that are keeping women and families afloat is one of them.
When President Obama proclaimed November National Family Caregivers Month this year, he described family caregiving as “heroic work… often done while caregivers balance other commitments to their families, jobs, and communities.”
A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health shows that various racial and ethnic groups were at greater risk of exposure to H1N1 during the pandemic because they didn’t have access to paid sick days.
With a little over a week for the Congressional super committee to complete its work, we must raise our voices to ensure Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are protected in the final deficit reduction package.
The deadline for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (The Super-Committee) to reach an agreement is fast approaching.
“Shared sacrifices.” “Tough decisions.” “Everything is on the table.” This is the rhetoric being used to describe the Super Committee’s daunting task of reducing the national deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years.
As a nation, our conversations often revolve around “family values.” Yet when it comes to showing that we truly value families, politicians sometimes fall short.
Paid Sick Days and Health: Cost Savings from Reduced Emergency Room Visits finds that, regardless of workers’ access to health insurance, there are undeniable connections between the ways in which private sector workers use the health care system and whether they have access to paid sick days.