Resources

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 | 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 | 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.

The temporary nature of the federal eviction moratorium and lagging disbursement of emergency rental assistance signal an urgent need for housing solutions that directly address the unique barriers to housing stability and economic justice for Black women.

The historic COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of the digital age. Technology became even more important in our daily lives -- turning into a requirement for meeting our basic needs and communications.

The Problem: Untreated maternal mental health means worse health outcomes for moms and babies

The Problem: Health care and support for pregnant people with substance use disorder are inaccessible and inequitable, and instead they shamed, stigmatized, and punished.

The Problem: Deficiencies in neighborhoods' physical conditions impair the health of pregnant people and their infants

The Problem: Mass incarceration is hurting pregnant people and their infants

The executive branch can play an essential role in influencing, regulating and rewarding employer practices to improve workplace gender equity, safety and opportunity. Alongside legislative priorities, the next administration must pursue a range of executive actions to strengthen economic and health outcomes for all working people.

Public awareness about the devastating impacts of systemic and interpersonal racism has increased sharply with the escalation of racist violence and the COVID-19 pandemic’s disparate impact on communities of color.

Everyone should be able to weather a financial shock -- a major illness, a layoff -- without losing their housing or falling deep into debt. Everyone should be able to afford educational opportunities for themselves or their children and be able to retire with dignity and security. And every entrepreneur with a dream should be able to access the resources they need to start a new business and invest in their local economy. But a systemic racial wealth gap puts financial security, economic opportunity and community uplift out of reach for millions of Black people in the United States.

This series connects the dots between how different socioeconomic factors affect maternal and infant health, the outsize impact these factors have on BIPOC communities, and recommendations to effect the change we need to ensure all moms and babies thrive.

The Problem: The homelessness crisis is worsening and imperils pregnant people and their infants