About Us
A Brief History of Family Values @ Work
Family Values @ Work is a movement network of grassroots organizers and coalitions in more than two dozen states working toward economic, racial and gender justice. We have built power in key states and localities focused on winning policies that support workers and families including paid family and medical leave, earned sick and safe days, and affordable, high-quality childcare at the state and national levels.
We confront this nation’s long history of coerced and underpaid caregiving labor and counter it with demands for an economy based on care and equity.
Our grassroots movement is powered by the leadership of those most impacted, peer learning, and collaboration. FV@W promotes the leadership of women, low-wage workers, and workers of color at all points in a campaign to achieve transformative policy change, and actively engages underrepresented communities to build deep, long-term power.
How We Started
Founded in 2003 with seed money from the Ford and Casey Foundations, Family Values @ Work (FV@W) has grown from 8 to 27 states* and is a recognized leader with significant experience fostering grassroots coalitions and policy change in a geographically diverse set of locations.
FV@W has shaped the debates around Earned Sick Days (ESD) and Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FMLI), engaged a wide range of partners, and guided development of the most inclusive policies to date.
*AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, HI, IL, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MT, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OR, PA, RI, TX, VT, WA, and WI
FV@W helps state coalitions educate the public and policymakers about the importance of universal access to childcare, ESD and FMLI, while emphasizing the particular urgency of these issues for low-wage families and children and the ways it overlaps with racial and gender inequities.
Current policies still reflect the notion that families have someone home full time, even as women are primary or co-primary breadwinners in two-thirds of families. Time to care is a jobs issue, as well as a key to economic self-sufficiency and to well-being for children, families and seniors.
We fight for these issues because we know the building blocks of upward economic mobility—job retention, raises, promotions, and asset development—depend on access to paid family and medical leave, paid sick days and affordable child care. When taking time for caregiving leads to loss of a job or pay, economic opportunity dries up.
More than $22.5 billion in wages are lost in the U.S. each year by those deprived of their job or paychecks for taking time to heal or provide care.
Access to paid leave improves family economic stability and opportunity, gender and racial equity, and public and individual health.
How We Work
FV@W raises funds for each state coalition. The coalitions are coordinated by organizations (generally women-led) with impressive histories of activism, leadership development, and mobilization among diverse constituencies, particularly low-wage working women and families. The network links state groups to each other and to the wider movement for economic, racial, and gender justice.
In addition to raising national funds, we provide technical assistance with strategic planning, communications, and fundraising; connect states with experts; and provide opportunities for peer learning and collaboration. We have designed implementation pilots to increase usage states’ paid leave programs by families most needing the time. We’ve also led in developing campaigns to expand the rate of pay, number of weeks, and job protection in states’ programs.
The state-based approach of FV@W means we have been in ground-level discussions of ESD and FMLI policy design, implementation, and enforcement in cities and states across the nation. We have a unique combination of knowledge of the field, relationships with local and state leaders, implementing agencies and expert evaluators, and ongoing campaigns, pilot projects and anchor groups.
What We Have Accomplished
Our movement has an impressive track record.
FV@W’s member coalitions have been instrumental in helping to win 53 new paid sick days laws, 10 new paid family and medical programs, impacting more than 55 million workers and their families and creating demand for inclusive and sustainable federal policy solutions. Since California first implemented paid leave, 10 states and the District of Columbia have enacted paid leave. And many more victories are on the horizon.
Our coalitions have brought together more than 2,000 diverse partner organizations, from restaurant workers to restaurant owners, those who want to fight poverty and fight asthma, labor unions and business owners, faith leaders and people who care about young children and seniors, immigrants and LGBTQ communities, and more.
Above all, we have engaged thousands of people affected by the lack of leave and enabled them to see that change is possible and that they are the agents of that change.
Contact Us
Family Values @ Work
207 E Buffalo Street, Suite 501
Milwaukee WI 53202
Email: info@familyvaluesatwork.org
Phone: (414) 436-9536
DC Office
Family Values @ Work AFL-CIO Office:
4160 815 16th Street N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20006
Phone: (414) 436-9536