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News release

MomsRising Executive Director Testifies in Support of Washington State Paid Leave Bill

February 6, 2007
Paid Family & Medical Leave

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Olympia, WA – Calling it a “national embarrassment” that the United States doesn’t have a paid family leave law, MomsRising Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner today urged the Washington State legislature to pass the Family and Medical Leave Insurance bill, HB 1658. The bill would create a family and medical leave insurance program that would pay benefits weekly to employees who take time off from work to bond with a newborn or newly placed child, care for seriously ill family members or recover from their own serious health condition. Rowe-Finkbeiner testified before the House Commerce and Labor Committee.
 
According to a study released earlier this month by Harvard and McGill Universities, 2007 Work, Family, and Equity Index: How Does the U.S. Measure Up?, the U.S. lags far behind most other countries on workplace policies that support families. Of 173 countries in the study, 168 guarantee paid maternal leave; only the U.S., Lesotho, Liberia, Swaziland and Papua New Guinea do not. Nor is the United States among the 65 countries that grant fathers either paid paternity leave or paid parental leave.
 
MomsRising is an online grassroots organization that is working for paid family leave, flexible work options, excellent childcare and healthcare for all children, and to stop the wage and hiring biases that penalize so many mothers today. MomsRising, has more than 80,000 members across the United States and approximately 6,000 in Washington State.
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.