Nov 16, 2021
Congress is close to passing the Build Back Better plan, and policy groups are hopeful a provision to ensure more Ohioans can access paid leave will remain. The social-spending plan initially offered 12 weeks of paid leave for workers, which has since been scaled down to four weeks.
Elizabeth Brown, executive director of the Ohio Women's Public Policy Network, explained 72% of Ohio households with kids have two parents working, and one in four moms return to their jobs within 10 days after having a baby. She noted paid leave is not just about working mothers, but also working daughters. "Workers in our economy are not just responsible for providing care for their children but also their parents, their spouses, their siblings as our economy ages," Brown observed. "And women's wages support their household. In Ohio, 55% of mothers are key family breadwinners."