With emergency paid leave expired, PL+US urges Biden-Harris administration to prioritize paid leave in coronavirus relief package

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 12, 2021

Press contact: Neil Sroka, neil@paidleave.us , 847-219-8491

With emergency paid leave expired, PL+US urges Biden-Harris administration to prioritize paid leave in coronavirus relief package  

Today, Paid Leave for the U.S. (PL+US) sent a letter to key economic and domestic policy leaders in the incoming Biden-Harris administration urging them to prioritize paid family and medical leave in a COVID-19 response and recovery package that some expect President-elect Biden to release as soon as this week.

PL+US’s letter urged the administration to ensure that emergency paid family leave and paid sick days are included in a proposed economic relief package to replace the benefits in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) that were allowed to expire at the end of 2020. 

The inclusion of paid leave benefits in the upcoming proposal, PL+US noted, would give the administration an opportunity to build on the extension of paid leave benefits that were included in 2020’s House-passed Heroes Act.  It would also make a key down payment on the pledge President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris made to prioritize caregiving and pass 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave as a core part of their Build Back Better recovery plan.

“The urgent need to prioritize paid leave policy has never been more clear as we continue to confront this dire pandemic and an economic recession that has left millions of families reeling from acute health, caregiving, and financial challenges,” wrote Corinne Roller, PL+US Legislative Director.

“The Biden-Harris administration has made caregiving and the caregiving economy central to the nation’s economic recovery plans.  Now is the time to seize the bipartisan momentum for paid leave to provide economic security to families and businesses, protect public health, and support our nation’s economic recovery,” wrote Roller.  

The letter, which includes an outline of the seven research-based recommendations for comprehensive paid leave legislation, is available below:

Dear incoming Biden-Harris Administration, Labor Department, Council of Economic Advisors, and National Economic Council leaders: 

The urgent need to prioritize paid leave policy has never been more clear as we continue to confront this dire pandemic and an economic recession that has left millions of families reeling from acute health, caregiving, and financial challenges.  As Vice President-elect Harris pointed out this weekend in response to the December jobs report-- Black and Latina women who lack paid sick leave or the ability to work from home have been the most impacted by the job losses in this pandemic.  

It has been reported that President-elect Biden is expected to announce a COVID-19 response and recovery package in the coming days. We write to urge you to ensure paid family leave and paid sick days are a part of that package.

With the FFCRA’s paid leave provisions having expired at the end of the year, there is a glaring gap in the COVID safety net as millions of Americans recently lost much needed paid leave benefits. The HEROES Act, which passed the House, included fixes to the FFCRA, closing major corporate loopholes, so that emergency paid leave and its corresponding tax credits can be utilized by more working Americans and their employers, respectively.  We stand ready to work with you to support any proposals that include comprehensive paid leave. 

Paid Leave for the U.S. (PL+US) and PL+US Action Fund, is the national campaign to win paid family and medical leave for everybody in the United States. During the campaign, we highlighted your commitment to paid leave with an event featuring the incoming Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, and we seek to build on that partnership. Our track record has been built in advocacy. PL+US has won or expanded access to paid leave for nearly 8 million working people in the private sector and we look forward to leveraging that momentum for public policy. 

Beyond the immediate need to reinstate emergency paid leave, President-elect Biden and Vice-President Harris have a unique opportunity to advance a comprehensive plan for federal paid family and medical leave for every working person in America. 

We applaud the Biden-Harris administration for pledging to create a national paid leave plan that includes up to 12 weeks of paid leave for all types of caregiving, parental, and personal medical leave in the Build Back Better plan. In doing so, the Biden-Harris administration has made caregiving and the caregiving economy central to the nation’s economic recovery plans.  Now is the time to seize the bipartisan momentum for paid leave to provide economic security to families and businesses, protect public health, and support our nation’s economic recovery. This can be a win for working families nationwide and the new administration. 

In 2019, PL+US commissioned a report from Georgetown University’s Center on Poverty and Inequality on paid family and medical leave that offers research-based recommendations outlining who should qualify for paid leave and why, the nature of the paid leave benefits themselves, and how paid leave policies should be structured and administered.  Based on those findings, we urge future legislation to:

1. Include all worker types: Paid leave should include workers at businesses of all sizes, public employees, contractors, self-employed workers, domestic workers, agricultural workers, part-time workers, and those who work for multiple employers. Paid leave programs that include all worker types are more equitable because the jobs that tend to be left out of leave policies are often lower-paying and disproportionately filled by women, people of color, and immigrants.

2. Cover a broad range of personal and family medical, safety, and caregiving needs: Workers should be able to take leave to meet an expansive set of medical, safety, and caregiving needs, including the needs of military families and of DV/IPV, stalking, and sexual assault victim-survivors. Programs should define covered family members in ways that reflect the realities of workers’ lives— by including extended family members, same-sex partners, domestic partners, and chosen family. Such expansive definitions of family reflect modern family structures and are especially important for LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities.

3. Provide sufficient time to meet workers’ needs: Leave duration that matches health and development needs is crucial to helping workers maintain their financial stability. Adequate duration is especially important for low-paid workers who may have fewer financial resources and savings. Six months is generally time enough to allow workers to meet their caregiving responsibilities or take care of their own medical needs. 

4. Allow intermittent and incremental leave: Workers should be able to take leave intermittently and in short increments (hours or days) as needed. This flexibility is particularly more equitable vis-a-vis workers (and their loved ones) with disabilities or chronic health conditions who require ongoing care. It also supports more equally shared caregiving between parents. 

5. Ensure sufficient wage replacement: Wage replacement rates should be progressive and high enough to allow workers to afford to take leave without jeopardizing their financial stability. Wage replacement rates of 80 to 100 percent are more likely to support gender equity and likely are necessary for low- and middle-income workers to meet their financial needs.

6. Guarantee job protection and anti-retaliation protections: Workers should not have to worry that their jobs or pay are at risk, or that they might face other consequences, for taking the leave they are entitled to and need. These protections are especially important for workers of color, women, and immigrants, who face greater workplace and hiring discrimination. 

7. Employ targeted outreach strategies and establish simple, accessible application processes: Paid leave programs should utilize targeted outreach strategies that include accessible, multilingual materials. This can help ensure that people with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency can access the information they need. Information about programs should be complete, accurate, and presented in plain language. The paid leave application process should be simple, short, and accessible to all workers.

PL+US is excited about the prospect of working with the Biden-Harris administration to develop a fair, accessible, and comprehensive paid leave plan as was outlined in the campaign and transition, in addition to reinstating and improving coronavirus-related emergency provisions.  As you continue to develop your path forward on a paid leave policy, please feel free to use us as a resource. We greatly look forward to working with you in the coming months to make paid leave for every working person in the United States a reality.

Sincerely,

Katie Bethell, Founder and Executive Director & Corinne Roller, Legislative Director, PL+US

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About PL+US 

PL+US (Paid Leave for the United States) is the national campaign to win paid family and medical leave for every working person in the US. PL+US has helped win paid family leave for nearly 8 million people through our transformative workplace campaigns at companies like Walmart, Starbucks, CVS and more in partnership with employees, employers, consumers, and investors. Learn more at: http://paidleave.us/