I’ll never forget the day I found out that one of my best friends from high school was pregnant with her second child—and she came to me mid-anxiety-attack because she realized that taking time off work to care for the baby might very well lead to her financial ruin. We were 24, and she had been working at her job as a first grade teacher for only six months, because she’d switched school districts. Her husband had recently lost his job, and they were already feeling depressingly strapped. She turned to me because at the time I was in grad school studying our nation’s safety nets and legal protections, and she hoped I’d have a good answer for her. “Is there anyone or anything that can help me?” she wailed (seriously, there was wailing). “I have no idea how I’m going to pay the mortgage if I’m not earning a salary. No idea! I have maybe a handful of paid sick days I can use, but then my paychecks will just stop. I don’t even know how long they’re going to let me off of work, because I haven’t been there long enough to be covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act—not that I can afford to stay out long!”

I was stuck giving her the same dismal answer that women and men all over the country get every day: you have very few legal rights, if any, that will protect you from getting fired if you take time off to care for your new baby, or for a seriously ill family member, or even just to take a sick kid to the doctor. And your employer is not required to give you a single day of paid leave.

Even now, after years of fighting for better workplace standards, I’m still floored every time I have to give someone that answer. Regardless of the high cost and the financial risk, many women—and men, but mostly women—are still more than happy to do the work of family caregiving. Sure, it’s work, but it’s work with a major emotional payoff. But sadly, that emotional payoff can’t pay the bills, and that’s what concerns me.

While nearly every other economically competitive nation in the world guarantees paid leave for its workforce, the U.S. does not. A shockingly large share of working people here receive no pay and have no legal right to keep their jobs when they have to take even an hour or two away from work, let alone days or weeks, for a new baby or a family member’s serious illness, or to recover themselves. Nearly half the private sector workforce has no access to a single paid sick day. And a whopping 92 percent of the workforce lacks employer-provided paid family leave. What’s worse, lower-wage workers—who are most financially on the edge—have much less access to paid time off than higher-wage workers.

Caregivers also face discrimination in the workforce, and often lose out on raises or promotions. Any and all of the above factors contribute to women’s starkly higher rates of poverty. It’s epidemic, and it’s unjust.

But there are solutions: basic labor standards that would safeguard people’s jobs and paychecks when they need time off to recover from illness or care for their families. I see standards for caregivers as one of the most effective ways we can help women stay out of financial crisis. I also see these standards as a fundamental part of our fight for women’s rights. That’s why I’ve joined the fight for the Healthy Families Act, which would guarantee that all workers have access to job-protected paid sick days, and the FIRST Act, which would help states get paid family and medical leave systems up and running.

I don’t want any more of my friends—or anyone at all—to get that kind of dismal, depressing, devastating answer when illness or caregiving responsibilities threaten family economic security ever again. Let’s make things right, as soon as possible, for our families and for all of us. 

Steffany Stern, National Partnership for Women & Families

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