U.S. Department of Labor’s Celebration of 30 Years of the Family and Medical Leave Act
Throughout the week agencies, organizations, employers and employees celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Today, February 6th, the U.S. Department of Labor hosted a great event with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Secretary of the Department of Labor, Marty Walsh, Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Lauren Underwood, among other paid leave advocates, to commemorate the FMLA’s 30 year anniversary. Main Street Alliance was recognized by Jocelyn Frye, President of the National Partnership for Women & Families, for its commitment to expanding access for small businesses.
To date more than 500 million people have benefited from FMLA. We are thankful for the impact of FMLA but now is the time to expand and strengthen paid sick leave for workers across the United States. We see the need for a national paid family and medical leave program, because more than 44% of workers are not ineligible for FMLA. This includes small businesses like those with 20 or less employees, part time workers and sole proprietors. Big businesses can afford to offer paid leave yet small businesses generally lack the capital and the scale to provide paid leave, even when owners want to provide that benefit. Small business support for paid sick leave grew significantly from 62 percent in the fall of 2019 to more than 71 percent of small businesses supporting paid sick leave in 2020, and continues to grow.
Establishing a national paid leave policy will strengthen the small business economy by:
reducing turnover and higher employee morale and loyalty, leading to productivity increases and significant costs savings for small businesses.
Paid leave laws help level the playing field between small businesses and large corporations, allowing small businesses to compete on more equal footing.
Evaluations of existing state programs demonstrate leave programs don’t increase costs for small businesses and implementation is manageable
Paid leave dollars go back into the local economy, boosting consumer demand at small businesses, as working people spend their leave to cover basics.
We encourage you to take action around paid leave. Please visit our site to send a letter of support to your local representative here, and learn more about the core issues at Main Street Alliance.
