The Family Care Act: Advocate Now!
As part of the recent Our Health, Our Future, Our Lobby Day event in Harrisburg on November 18th, NCJW Pittsburgh joined our state-wide coalition partners in Harrisburg to talk to legislators about the Family Care Act. Universal paid leave legislation has been introduced in the PA Senate (SB 906) and the PA House (HB 200) with wide bipartisan support. There are currently 30 Senators co-sponsoring the bill in the Senate, and 87 Representatives co-sponsoring it in the House.
What is the Family Care Act?
The Family Care Act (creating a state-wide public paid family leave program) would allow:
New parents to be there for the critical period following the birth or adoption of a child
Family members to provide critical care and rehab services to elderly loved ones at home
Parents the ability to care for their child who is recovering from a serious illness
Workers to care for themselves during a serious illness or injury
Safe leave for domestic violence or abusive caregiving situations
Individuals to tend to a family matter related to military deployment
Additionally, the Family Care Act is budget neutral – deductions would fund both leave and administrative costs.
Why is it important?
Every month of paid parental leave reduces the infant mortality rate by up to 13%.
A recent study found that the likelihood of rehospitalization after delivery for mothers who had access to paid leave was 51% lower than for mothers who were only offered unpaid leave, or no leave at all.
Women who take paid leave are 39% less likely to utilize federal assistance programs during the first year of their child’s life.
Without paid family leave, nearly a third of women will stop working in the year after childbirth, and forty percent of those women will still be out of the workforce when their child turns six.
It’s good for business: Within paid leave jurisdictions, businesses saw statistically significant increases in productivity compared to others without paid leave laws and average increase to bottom line benefit where paid leave is offered was 6.8%.
Bonding leave would generate $379 million in annual net benefits to PA families, businesses, and the Commonwealth .
Time and again, when we meet with legislators, we are met with overwhelming support for this important bill, so why hasn’t it been passed yet? While NCJW Pittsburgh advocates along with our coalition partners have been tirelessly working to impress upon our legislators the importance of passing universal paid leave in Pennsylvania, the bills still wait for the green light from House and Senate leadership to send them to the floor for a vote.
In order to put pressure on our legislators to bring the bills to a vote, the voices they most need to hear from are yours. Your representatives work for you, and they need to know that you not only support paid family leave, but you demand that they do what’s needed to make sure no Pennsylvanian has to choose between caring for a loved one, recovering from illness, or escaping domestic violence - and a paycheck.
Here are three easy ways to contact your legislators:
Send them an email, expressing your support for the Family Care Act, and imploring them to advocate for a vote.
Call them! Here’s a short script you can use to tell them to bring the Family Care Act to a vote!
Write a postcard or a letter using this script - you can also write your own or add your own thoughts as well! Handwritten postcards and letters make a big impression on your electeds, so this is a small lift for big impact.
