Resources

CHART | A detailed summary of existing family leave laws in California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, New York, D.C., Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon and Colorado

Universal paid family and medical leave is critical to American families’ financial security, especially for low-income women and workers of color. Establishing national paid leave by passing the Build Back Better Act would provide this vital benefit to the 77 percent of workers who don’t have paid family leave, and the 60 percent of workers without paid medical leave.

Due to the lack of paid family and medical leave in the United States, many people — predominantly women — are forced to choose between caregiving and their job.

Paid family and medical leave is a crucial component to the success of the Build Back Better Plan because it is known and overwhelmingly popular and frames this as the American Family Plan. Paid leave is one of the best-known elements of the Plan, and it is well-liked.

Universal paid family and medical leave is critical to American families’ financial security, especially for low-income women and workers of color. Establishing national paid leave by passing the Build Back Better Act would provide this vital benefit to the 77 percent of workers who don’t have paid family leave, and the 60 percent of workers without paid medical leave.

Nationally, 16.5 percent of full-time, year-round workers have earnings of $100,000 or more – an estimated 19.2 million people. Due to the gender wage gap, men are more likely than women to have earnings above this threshold: 20.6 percent of men (13.5 million) working full-time, year-round are paid $100,000 or more, compared to 11.2 percent of women (5.6 million).

It is more apparent than ever. The lack of a national paid family and medical leave policy in the United States costs working people their health and financial security – and the price tag is rising.

The undersigned represent more than 50 reproductive justice organizations and Black policy leaders committed to advancing Black maternal health through critical policy change. We applaud the investments in the House of Representatives’ Build Back Better Act text, which help address the deep inequities Black women and birthing people experience.

Our nation’s maternity care system fails to provide many childbearing people* and newborns with equitable, accessible, respectful, safe, effective, and affordable care. More people die per capita from pregnancy and childbirth in this country than in any other high-income country in the world.

FACT SHEET | National paid family and medical leave would improve the health and economic security of the more than 20 million people in the United States experiencing a substance use disorder (SUD).

ISSUE BRIEF | National paid family and medical leave would improve the health and economic security of the more than 20 million people in the United States experiencing a substance use disorder (SUD).

FACT SHEET | Both parents and educators know firsthand the importance of keeping children healthy, and access to paid sick days for parents can make a real difference.

FACT SHEET | Every day, millions of U.S. workers face an impossible choice when they are sick: stay home and risk their economic security or go to work and risk their health and the public’s health.

FACT SHEET | A fact sheet on legislation that would establish a national paid family and medical leave insurance program: the Family And Medical Insurance Leave Act (FAMILY Act).

FACT SHEET | A national paid family and medical leave insurance program would provide mothers and fathers with much-needed pay when they need time off for family or medical reasons.

Coauthored by the Financial Health Network and the National Partnership, this brief adds to calls for workplace paid leave policies that can help workers meet medical or caregiving needs, and offers new insights on the relationship between paid leave and positive financial health outcomes.

Why A U.S. Paid Leave Plan Must Provide More Than Time to Care for New Children

House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal’s Build Back Better Act offers the most effective paid family and medical leave policy for the range of caregiving needs across a lifespan.

In the United States, people with lower incomes, people with disabilities, and people of color have never fully enjoyed reproductive freedom. Whether a person wants to have a child or wants to not have children, their ability to exercise these rights has consistently been thwarted.

Passage of the American Families Plan can be a transformative moment to make the United States economy more competitive, regain lost ground toward gender and racial equity and ease the burden of working families.