President Biden made his most public commitment to passing America’s first ever national paid family leave program this Thursday, at a White House event to mark the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Joined on stage by Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Bill Clinton, President Biden said, “94% of our lowest wage workers, mostly women and workers of color, have no paid family leave at all. I remain committed to changing that by passing a national program of paid leave for all.”
“It’s about being a country where women and all people can both work and raise a family,” he said. “How can we compete in a global economy if millions of American parents, especially moms, can’t join the workforce?”
His remarks, greeted by loud cheers from those in the audience, followed speeches by Vice President Harris and former president Clinton, who also called for significant action and the implementation of paid leave.
Clinton, whose administration passed the FMLA—which guarantees workers job protection for up to 12 weeks to take time off to care for a newborn, an adopted child, or a seriously ill family member—acknowledged that while the legislation was groundbreaking at the time, “there’s still a lot of problems that cannot be solved without some form of paid leave.”
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In order to spark action, “we need more stories,” he declared. “Not process. Stories.” Stories which Glamour is committed to telling, through our landmark paid leave project.
And Harris, who during her speech drew on her own experience of taking paid time off to care for her sick mother, said, “Women are 40% more likely to need family and medical leave, because they are more likely to take on caregiving responsibilities. Over the past half century, women’s workforce participation has increased by 30%. That change alone has strengthened our economy by over $2 trillion dollars. Let us continue to fight to build on the Family and Medical Leave Act so that everyone can take paid family leave.”
The promise is a significant policy commitment ahead of the president’s State of the Union address, and it follows the reintroduction of the FAMILY Act (Representative Rosa DeLauro and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s co-authored paid leave bill) yesterday, but it still faces an uphill battle in Congress.
Paid family leave was removed from the ultimately doomed Build Back Better bill in November 2021 after opposition from Democratic senator Joe Manchin. And with the GOP controlling the House, its passage is far from assured.
But despite the challenges Dawn Huckelbridge, director of Paid Leave for All, told Glamour, “The president and vice president’s renewed commitment and actions today are monumental. We look forward to working alongside them and winning paid leave in this country.”
In order to show the catastrophic impact of the lack of paid leave on women and families, Glamour followed eight women with varying access through the first 28 days postpartum. Two of the women whose journeys Glamour documented were forced to go back to work within two weeks of giving birth, with two of the others forced to eat into their savings or go into credit card debt to cover bills.
There couldn’t be a more urgent time to deliver what the country needs—paid leave for all. So join Glamour in calling on the government—and your local representatives and senators—to #passpaidleave.
