What is the FAMILY Act?

In a nation that underpays, disrespects, and undervalues caregivers, we are stronger as a community and a nation when we claim our right to care. It is time for a new path where we invest in our families instead of eroding the protections we all need. When we have time to care, our families are healthier, our communities are safer, and we advance toward equity. Time to care is a right all workers have by virtue of their humanness: It doesn’t have to be earned or accrued. And it is a right that must be equitably accessible by all–no matter where you live, where you work, or who you love.

Millions of people live with the impossible “choice” of deciding between taking time to care for themselves and the ones they love or working to be able to provide for themselves and their loved ones. Through our more than twenty years of advocacy, we at Family Values @ Work have actualized a different reality, where families put their care needs first when they have access to paid family and medical leave.

That’s why Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) reintroduced the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act. This latest version of the FAMILY Act builds on the FV@W Network’s 20+ years of advocacy and success in implementing paid family and medical leave in the states.
➡️ Tell Congress: Families can’t wait, pass comprehensive, job-protected paid leave NOW.

What does the FAMILY Act do?

• Provide workers with up to 12 weeks of paid time off for the birth or adoption of a new child, personal medical needs, the care of a seriously ill family member, for military reasons (deployment and caregiving), and now also includes safe leave for sexual or domestic violence.
• Under the updated FAMILY Act, workers will receive wage replacement on a tiered scale, ensuring that low and middle-wage workers receive more of their income, up to 85% of wages for the lowest-income earners.
• Ensures that workers will have a job to return to after taking time to care.
• Recognizes “family” as broadly defined to reflect diverse family arrangements. Workers would be able to use their time when their child, parent, spouse, domestic partner, or other relatives to whom the worker has a similarly close relationship is ill, injured, or getting medical care.
• Cover all working people regardless of location, job type, or employer size. This will include younger, part-time, lower-wage, and self-employed workers.
• ➡️ Tell Congress: Families can’t wait, pass comprehensive, job-protected paid leave NOW.

Why is this important?

Everyone – no matter where they live, what they do, and who they love will need access to paid leave in their lifetime. As of 2023, only 27 percent of U.S. private sector workers have access to paid family leave through their employers – and only 45 percent have personal medical leave through an employer-provided temporary disability program. That means millions of workers who develop serious health conditions, have seriously ill family members, or welcome a new child are forced to choose between what is best for them and their families and the income they need to cover basic expenses.

We know that nearly half of all employed caregivers who take time to care for loved ones report losing money. That loss of income translates to nearly $22.5 billion a year in working families’ loss without access to paid leave. Beyond the personal financial benefits of paid leave, nearly eighty percent of small businesses, when polled, indicated they support a paid family and medical leave program that mirrors the FAMILY Act.

In the fourteen states that have paid family and medical leave, we have seen higher rates of involvement for parents, increased numbers of workers returning to the workforce, better health outcomes, and even reductions in poverty. Paid leave is good for business, good for the economy, good for workers, and good for families.

Our nation is ready for paid family and medical leave and an economy that prioritizes care, not cuts. Congress must invest in an equitable, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program for all.

➡️ Tell Congress: Families can’t wait, pass comprehensive, job-protected paid leave NOW.