As a woman working a low-wage job, it can be a struggle to make it paycheck to paycheck. When my younger daughter needed surgery at the same time that my elderly father needed immediate medical attention, times were tough. If not for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), I would not have been able to take time off from work to care for them. But having to take time off unpaid was an enormous financial burden for me. I had to choose between paying rent and caring for my family. I needed to make sure they had medications and healthy meals. After not paying rent and utilities, it took me four months to get partly caught up with my bills.

Women are almost half the workforce in the U.S. We also do much more than half of the unpaid work caring for family members. In households with two working parents, moms spend about 75 percent more time on childcare than dads. Women are also two-thirds of the caregivers for sick, elderly, or disabled family members. This culture of female caregiving means that having no paid family leave hits women’s paychecks harder than men.

Although FMLA is great and I was able to keep my job, we need the FAMILY Act, which would institute a paid family and medical leave insurance program. Having paid family and medical leave now is necessary for the future of our families and women’s equality.

Tuesday, April 14 is Equal Pay Day, which represents how far into 2015 women must work to earn what men earned in 2014 alone. You can read more stories about pay inequality in 9to5’s collection The Face of the Wage Gap, which was compiled to illustrate the many factors that impact the wage gap, and the many necessary solutions.  I shared my story to say: one crucial step in closing the wage gap, especially for moms, is establishing paid family leave. It’s time to stop punishing women financially for taking care of our families!