On March 25, New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer reintroduced New York City’s Paid Sick Time Act in the City Council, with 34 of the City Council’s 51 members as co-sponsors. Advocates celebrated the bill’s reintroduction with a thrilling and energizing rally at City Hall.
How Much is the Wage Gap Costing Your Family?
Eight months of groceries. That is what the wage gap is costing women and their families. Don’t believe it? Do the math.
Next Up: Paid Sick Days for 30 Million Workers
It’s hard to believe, but the sick truth is tens of millions of workers in the good ole U. S. of A. don’t have a single paid sick day.
New Analysis Suggests Lack of Paid Sick Days May Have Prolonged H1N1 Pandemic
New analysis from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) provides support for what paid sick days advocates have long argued: lack of access to paid sick days means employees are more likely to go to work sick, spread contagious disease, prolong the effects of pandemic illness, and harm the public health.
FMLA: After 17 Years, It's Time to Take the Next Step
The Family and Medical Leave Act turns 17 today.
Celebrating Ledbetter: End Pay Discrimination Against Women Now!
This week we celebrate the one-year anniversary of enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: a law that righted a terrible Supreme Court decision and set the stage for the next fair pay law we need — the Paycheck Fairness Act.
First Lady Stresses Need for Work and Family Policies in U.S. Department of Labor Visit
In a recent speech before the staff of the U.S. Department of Labor, First Lady Michelle Obama emphasized the Obama administration’s support for the Healthy Families Act and other work and family policies.
Pregnancy Discrimination On Wisteria Lane!
If you haven’t seen the latest episodes of Desperate Housewives, you have missed more than just the usual melodrama swirling around the residents of Wisteria Lane. A new storyline may be all-too-familiar to many viewers — a woman facing pregnancy discrimination on the job.
Wal-Mart’s Demerit Practice Makes Me Sick
Given the recent news about Wal-Mart’s sick days practice, we all may want to think twice about shopping there this holiday season—which regrettably overlaps with cold and flu season.
New York City Rallies Behind Paid Sick Days
Since its launch just this summer, New York City’s campaign for paid sick days has quickly become one of the most-watched in the country.
Health Care Reform Matters to Older Women
Let’s be clear. As both caregivers and patients, women bear the brunt of shortcomings in our health care system – high costs, poor quality, and fragmented, uncoordinated care.
What Are Lawmakers Afraid Of?
For decades, we’ve debated whether the United States can afford to provide more family-friendly workplace policies and protections, and whether doing so will increase unemployment and harm our economic competitiveness.
Sen. Dodd Holds a Hearing on the Healthy Families Act
On Nov. 10, the Senate HELP Committee’s Subcommittee on Children and Families, chaired by Sen. Chris Dodd, hosted a hearing on H1N1 and paid sick days entitled “The Cost of Being Sick.”
What Did You Just Sign?
Every day, women’s rights and civil rights groups work to improve the laws that govern our lives. And several times each day, workers sign away their right to enforce those laws in court.
The Evidence is There: Better Coordinated Care Makes Sense and Saves Money. Duh.
This just in. What health care experts have suspected for some time has been demonstrated by a new study published in the American Journal of Managed Care: patients who can rely on a coordinated system where their providers talk to each other, their medical information is available electronically, and they have improved access to doctors and nurses – have better health outcomes.
The Costs of Family Caregiving in an Aging Society: What Is Your Experience?
Everyone I know has at least one personal story about the overwhelming stress and frustration in trying to arrange, coordinate or provide the best possible care for an aging parent, spouse, grandparent, other older relative or friend, not to mention the spiraling costs of health care.
Does Your Child Care Center Provide Paid Sick Days?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps updating its guidelines to help child care and early childhood programs – – and all of us – – respond to influenza during the 2009-2010 flu season.
No Progress on the Wage Gap…Again!
It is official. Women are still getting short-changed when it comes to our wages. Last week, the government released information on pay and gender.
With H1N1 Spreading this Labor Day: We Need Paid Sick Days, Not Another iPhone App
As schools reopen and cooler, drier temperatures return here to Washington, D.C., the nation waits for the second wave of the H1N1 flu to hit us.
Start Spreading the News: Paid Sick Days Coming to NYC
Campaigns to make paid sick days a basic workplace standard have sprung up around the country—and now New York City is getting in on the action.