Saturday, September 28, 2019

Tell Congress: Don't trade Social Security for paid family leave


Petition to Congress:
"Pass the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act and establish an insurance plan to provide paid family and sick leave to every working American."
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►
This year, Trump's budget once again included a bogus paid family leave proposal that opens to the door to Republican sneak attacks on Social Security.1 But while Trump violates the Constitution and schemes against the social safety net, progressives are proposing real, concrete plans to make our country stronger.Donald Trump's America is the only industrialized nation that fails to offer paid family and medical leave. That's not a problem if you are a Wall Street executive who can take time off when you or a relative falls ill. But for everyone else, it means choosing between a paycheck and your health or a paycheck and your loved ones.
The FAMILY Act would establish an insurance plan to provide paid family and medical leave to every working American.2 At a time when working people face so many challenges, it's more important than ever to rally behind the most progressive plan in Congress.
New parents should not have to choose between caring for their children and keeping their jobs. Yet more than 25 years after Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act – which requires some employers to allow employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to attend to family and health-related matters the United States remains the only industrialized nation in the world that does not offer all citizens paid family or medical leave.3
The raw numbers behind that fact are staggering. Eighty-three percent of U.S. workers do not have paid family or medical leave – leaving more than 100 million people struggling when they or a loved one gets sick. Right now, low-wage earners and women make up a disproportionate number of workers without paid family and medical leave. No wonder it has support from more than three quarters of Republican, independent and Democratic voters.4
The progressive FAMILY Act would give people up to 12 weeks of paid time off, earning up to two-thirds of their regular wages, to care for new children or deal with serious family or health issues. It is funded by a small increase in payroll taxes – less than $2 per person – instead of pitting family leave and earned Social Security benefits against each other like Republican plans do.5
With Trump trying to soften his despicable image by putting paid family leave in his budget, there is more and more talk that Republicans and Democrats may come together to get something done. We need to make sure the strong, progressive Family Act is the standard for any paid family leave plan.
Tell Congress: We need paid family leave now. Click below to sign the petition:
- Heidi Hess, CREDO Action
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►
References:
  1. Emily Peck, "Trump’s Parental Leave Proposal Is Pure Hypocrisy," HuffPost, March 12, 2019.
  2. National Partnership for Women and Families, "Coalition Letter," May 6, 2019.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Peck, "Trump’s Parental Leave Proposal Is Pure Hypocrisy."

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