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
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Everyone benefits from comprehensive paid leave and paid sick time policies. Workers are able to care for themselves and their loved ones, businesses have increased employee morale and retention and our economy thrives. Paid leave and paid sick time works for all.
Tell Congress to pass paid leave for all. Sign now!
Paid family and medical leave is critical to building back better and Congress must act quickly to make #paidleaveforall a reality.
Paid Leave is a life-saving and economy-boosting policy that Congress is considering and it should absolutely be adopted without delay.