Across the United States, more and more working parents are celebrating their first Mother’s Day with hard-fought access to paid leave to care for their newborns. But the majority still have to forgo paying to care for new babies or other loved ones, even as efforts to expand paid parental and family leave gain traction.
Bipartisan groups in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have revived efforts to expand paid family leave to more workers, with momentum building toward introducing legislation this year. In the absence of federal law, 13 states plus the District of Columbia have adopted paid family and medical leave laws, which allow workers to receive paid time off to care for newborns or other loved ones requiring care.
Yet only 27% of civilian workers in the United States receive paid family leave, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers who can least afford to take unpaid leave are also the least likely to have access to paid leave: according to the BLS, only 14% of workers in the lowest 25% of earners receive this benefit. , compared to 48% of them. in the top 10%.
For families without paid leave, babies “go to daycare starting at two weeks old. They don’t even have vaccines. They do not follow regular eating habits. Moms are giving up breastfeeding much sooner than they would like,” said Elizabeth Gedmark, vice president of the nonprofit A Better Balance, during a recent virtual conference to advocate for breastfeeding. federal paid family leave, organized by the WK Kellogg Foundation.
The United States is one of seven countries – and the only industrialized country – without a national paid maternity leave policy, according to the World Policy Analysis Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Caitlyn Householder has become an advocate for a universal paid family leave law in Pennsylvania since she was forced to leave her job as a floor supervisor at a clothing company five years ago when she learned that She was pregnant shortly after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s B syndrome. Cellular lymphoma.
Householder, of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, could barely drive to work due to excruciating leg pain, and it quickly became clear that his employer would not allow him to take enough time off to his medical needs.
“They showed their true colors,” said Householder, who shared her story through Children First, an organization campaigning for the Pennsylvania bill.
This woman’s husband, who works on an oil rig, also does not receive paid parental or family leave to care for her and her children. Most days, Householder took her baby and daughter-in-law with her to radiation treatments. When her husband missed work, such as when Householder couldn’t hold her baby for 24 hours after radiation, it meant giving up hundreds of dollars in income. The family fell behind on their mortgage payments during the toughest months.
The Pennsylvania House and Senate are considering legislation that would provide up to 20 weeks of paid family leave through a payroll tax. The proposed measure has bipartisan sponsorship, but some Republicans have strongly opposed it because of the cost to taxpayers.
Disagreements over how to fund family leave programs are an obstacle in other states and have long thwarted efforts to pass a federal law. Democrats generally favor funding these programs through payroll taxes, while many Republicans prefer tax incentives to encourage, but not require, employers to offer paid leave.
In January, a bipartisan House group led by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, Democrat of Pennsylvania, and Rep. Stephanie Bice, Republican of Oklahoma, released a four-part framework aimed at expanding paid family leave to more workers , including funding for state programs or stronger measures. tax breaks for small businesses.
In a statement, Bice said the group was “excited about this dynamic and will continue to work together to develop legislation that can cross the finish line.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Houlahan said she was optimistic that legislation could be introduced this year. Although any measure would fall short of a federal paid leave law, Houlahan said it reflects a years-long effort to find common ground for policies that would extend the leave. the benefit for as many workers as possible.
Colorado’s benefits took effect Jan. 1, four years after the state’s paid family and medical leave program was passed by vote after efforts to pass a bill through the legislature failed. ‘Legislative Assembly. The law gives most Colorado workers the right to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave to bond with a new baby and other family needs.
The new benefits came too late for Carrie Martin-Haley’s family. Neither Martin-Haley, a small business owner in Denver who gave birth to her son in September 2023, nor her husband had paid time off. Martin-Haley therefore had to put aside her dream of opening a physical store for her business, Summit Sustainable Goods.
“It’s been hard to accept,” said Martin-Haley, who shared her story through Small Business Majority, an advocacy group that campaigns for federally paid family leave. “With the lack of sleep and everything that comes with new parenthood, and all the uncertainties, finances should be the last thing on the totem pole.
Women’s participation in the U.S. workforce has reached historic highs, but changes such as paid parental leave often come after extensive campaigning by mothers.
Keenan Manzo of Dallas, a mother of three who worked as a flight attendant in the Southwest for 18 years, said she started a Facebook page for company mothers after having her first child 11 years ago to galvanize support for paid leave and other policies. She said paid leave often took a back seat to other priorities such as higher pay, but support grew as women shared stories of returning to work too soon and struggling to pump during flights, sometimes when impatient passengers were knocking on the toilet.
Southwest flight attendants finally got paid parental leave – up to eight weeks for biological parents and two weeks for non-biological parents – under a contract ratified in April by the United States Workers’ Union. transport. TWU International President John Samuelsen called the benefit a first for an industry with a long history of sexism toward flight attendants, who are mostly women.
“I fought so hard. I’m done having babies, but I still get emotional just thinking about the moms who will come after me and get this reprieve,” Manzo said.
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