Paid Family & Medical Leave
Paid family and medical leave combats poverty, gives children a healthy start, and lowers the wage gap between women and men by providing structural support to balance work and family.
Know the Facts
- Right now only 17% (!) of Americans have access to paid family leave through their employer and fewer than 40% have personal medical leave provided through an employer.
- Although the current Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows some employees to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave, it only covers about 60 percent of employees.
- A quarter of all poverty spells in the United States are because of having a baby.
- The U.S is one of the only countries in the world that doesn't offer paid leave to new mothers.
- Paid family leave has been shown to reduce infant mortality by as much as 20% (and the U.S. ranks a low 37th of all countries in infant mortality).
- Paid leave improves worker retention, which saves employers money through reduced turnover cost.
What You Can Do
Blog posts
Take Action
Under current law, nearly half of Washington workers who are eligible for paid leave are not guaranteed their job back if they take leave. Accessing paid leave could not only result in being fired, but could also cause workers to lose access to healthcare at a time when they or their family need it the most. House Bill 1213 would fix that.
This Mother’s Day, as we celebrate the many, many ways that moms power the U.S. (and all of us!), we’re calling on Congress to power moms by passing care policies!
Tell Congress to support working families by expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
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