Statement
Statement of MomsRising In Support of the Family & Medical Leave Act
February 20, 2008
Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996
MomsRising is a fast-growing online grassroots organization that works to promote and advocate for family-friendly policies. The policies that form the core of MomsRising’s agenda are spelled out the word MOTHER.
“M” is for paid maternity and paternity leave
“O” is for open flexible work
“T” is for technology we choose and other afterschool programs
“H” is for healthcare
“E” is for excellent childcare, and
“R” is for realistic and fair wages.
Our membership is open to everyone who is a mom, and everyone who has a mom. Less than two years old, we are approaching 150,000 members across the United States, and adding new members at the rate of 500 – 3,000 per week.
Our rapid growth speaks to the fact that we have touched a nerve. Americans are struggling to balance work and family. They join MomsRising because we are pressing for laws that let workers fulfill their responsibilities at work without giving short shrift to their families. They join MomsRising in part because we support the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a 15-year-old law that is immensely popular and is used by thousands of workers each and every day.
Like other Americans, MomsRising’s members not only want Congress to defeat any efforts to weaken the FMLA – they want Congress to expand it. Today, three quarters of American mothers are in the labor force. Yet we have a support structure from the 1950s. We need to ensure that our policies catch up to the reality of America’s families. That means protecting the FMLA and expanding it to cover more workers who need leave for more reasons. It also means providing paid leave, so that all workers can take time to care for family members or recover from serious illness.
Right now, we are far behind most of the world in terms of family-friendly policies. A study of 173 countries by Dr. Jody Heymann of Harvard and McGill Universities found that only Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland and the United States did not provide some form of paid leave for new mothers. We can and must do better.
Our lack of family-friendly policies is terribly costly. It drags down mothers’ wages. While women without children make 90 cents to every man’s dollar, women with children make only 73 cents to a man’s dollar and single mothers make only about 60 cents.
Because of this, America’s families are in trouble. A full quarter of families with children under age six live in poverty. It’s appalling that having a baby is a top cause of “poverty spells” in this country – a time when a family’s income dips below what it needs for basic living expenses like food and rent. That’s only going to get worse as the economy struggles.
When women aren’t paid what they deserve, their families suffer. When children grow up in poverty, our economy suffers. That’s why we believe that family-friendly workplace policies are so essential.
When so many people in our country are having the same problems at the same time, we have a structural problem that needs to be addressed, not an epidemic of personal failings. It’s time to take it seriously, adopt policies that make life better, and make America a more family-friendly nation.
Last year, MomsRising was instrumental in convincing lawmakers in Washington State to adopt paid family leave. We ask Congress to also take steps to build a more family-friendly country. We urge you to make paid leave – including family leave, sick leave, and maternity and paternity leave – available to all workers by expanding the FMLA, and by passing both the Healthy Families Act and the Balancing Act.
Our members care deeply about this. They send tens of thousands of emails to Congress and state legislators each time we send out an e-outreach. They have held hundreds of house parties and film screenings to increase support for these policies.
We are passionate about building a family-friendly nation because we want to strengthen families, improve our economy, and build a better world for our kids.
America is ready. We hope Congress is too. Please, take the next steps now.
Thank you.