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
Many families find themselves struggling right now--forced to figure out how to care for themselves or a loved one facing a critical health crisis with zero weeks of paid leave in the middle of a pandemic. Paid leave is the key to our long-term health, stability, and prosperity. Paid leave saves jobs. Paid leave saves lives. We can and we must pass it now.
Paid leave saves lives, during the pandemic and always.
Act now! Urge your NJ lawmaker to support the paid family leave expansion bill!
Working people in the United States need a national comprehensive and robust paid family and medical leave program that is more than just maternity and paternity leave and that does not threaten retirement income.