Family Values @ Work Leadership and Paid Family Leave Advocates From Across the Nation Gather to Share Best Paid Leave Practices

Washington, D.C. –  Family Values @ Work hosted more than 100 state administrators and paid leave advocates during a two-day conference to share best practices for implementing successful paid family and medical leave programs at the state level. Absent a national paid leave program, 13 states and the District of Columbia have passed their own paid family and medical leave laws that allow workers to take paid time off to bond with a new child, care for a sick family member, or attend to their own medical needs.

The conference was convened by Family Values @ Work (FV@W) and the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), two organizations that have been at the forefront of the paid leave movement for more than two decades.

“This is really an incredible room – advocates and administrators from all over this country and across multiple disciplines are trailblazers,” said FVAW Executive Director, Josephine Kalipeni.  “Not only have the people in this room already accomplished so much, but this room is where the magic will happen to ensure that millions more workers have access to paid leave, paid sick, paid safe days and so much more.”

“Our collective lessons will transcend beyond paid family and medical leave. Other movements, other policy advocates, and program administrators will learn from us. And their work will be better. This room is where the lives of working caregiving families will be changed,” Kalipeni continued. “This is the room that holds hope and change and practical application. And for that, I am grateful. And so are the millions of workers who are relying on us.”

Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a long-time paid leave champion and House author of the FAMILY Act, which would establish a national paid leave program, delivered a keynote in which she reflected on her own experience as a young Congressional staffer. After receiving a devastating cancer diagnosis, Rep. DeLauro was able to recover while retaining her job and still getting paid thanks to paid leave offered by her employer.

“Our health care system works best for those already well off enough to take advantage of it,” Rep. De Lauro said. “A simple illness or injury means their life can spin out of control. This is where paid leave is critical. I don’t know where I would be in my life or career had it not been for the leave Senator Chris Dodd provided to me when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Paid leave is essential–and we must expand it to all Americans.”

“Paid family and medical leave is a critical program that recognizes our full humanity, and the need we all have to care for ourselves and our loved ones,” said Emily Andrews, Director of Education, Labor, and Worker Justice  policy at CLASP. “Paid leave allows us to take time off work and be present during life’s most important moments.”

Event attendees and advocates shared best practices on how to create and administer paid family and leave programs while discussing ways to build diverse statewide coalitions.

The Pennsylvania legislature is considering its own paid leave bill, and advocate Samuel Jones expressed optimism about its chance of passage. Pennsylvania would be the first “purple state” to pass a statewide paid leave policy, noted Jones, Deputy Director for Strategic Partnerships at ROC United, a worker advocacy group. “Pennsylvania can be a blueprint for other states to take seriously the idea that they can pass paid family medical leave,” Jones said. “Workers should not have to choose between their jobs and taking leave for caregiving or medical needs. Paid family leave allows people to live and work with dignity and financial security, and every worker in America deserves it.”