Topics in the News: Family Leave
Gavin Newsom on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Mar 9, 2021)
Increase child care subsidies; add to paid family leave
California's most acute preexisting condition remains income inequality. We stay fixated on closing unacceptable disparities. Rewarding working families by nearly tripling the earned income tax credit and increasing child care subsidies,
adding two more weeks of paid family leave, and raising the minimum wage to $14, on its way to $15 an hour. Providing first-ever health care subsidies for middle-class Californians so they can afford coverage.
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Source: 2021 State of the State Address to California legislature
Donald Trump on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Feb 4, 2020)
Paid family leave for federal employees
I was recently proud to sign the law providing new parents in the Federal workforce paid family leave, serving as a model for the rest of the country. Now, I call on the Congress to pass the bipartisan Advancing Support for Working Families Act,
extending family leave to mothers and fathers all across the Nation.Congressional Summary: HR.5296 and S.2976: The Advancing Support for Working Families Act allows individual taxpayers an election to advance up to $5,000 of the child
tax credit in the year of birth or adoption of an applicable qualifying child [Status: 13 bipartisan co-sponsors in House and Senate].
FCW.com explanation of Family Leave:
The National Defense Authorization Act included a family leave
amendment by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). The benefit was added in a bit of legislative horse-trading that allowed for the establishment of Space Force. Pres. Trump signed the NDAA on 12/20/2019, in time to avoid a government shutdown on 12/21.
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Source: 2020 State of the Union address to Congress
Mike Bloomberg on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Jan 20, 2020)
Guarantee 12 weeks of paid family leave
Mike will secure 12 weeks of paid family leave for all workers by supporting the FAMILY Act. Mike's plan makes access to paid family leave equitable,
gender neutral and available to workers of all incomes. Mike's plan enforces anti-retaliation protections for workers who take paid family leave.
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Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeBloomberg.com
Mike Bloomberg on Family Leave:
(Jobs Jan 20, 2020)
Raise minimum wage; pay Earned Income Tax Credit monthly
Mike's plan will enhance the Earned Income Tax Credit, pay it monthly and pay more where it's most needed. Mike will also increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, linked to growth in earnings, and ensure affordable child care,
paid family leave and the right to sue employers for harassment and discrimination. And his plan will grant all workers--including gig, contract and franchise employees--the right to organize and bargain collectively.
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Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeBloomberg.com
Kamala Harris on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Nov 20, 2019)
Six months paid family leave; burden still falls on women
Q: Your paid family leave proposal -- why six months? HARRIS: Many women are having to make a very difficult choice whether they're going to leave a profession for which they have a passion to care for their family,
or whether they are going to give up a paycheck that is part of what that family relies on. So six months paid family leave is meant to and is designed to adjust to the reality of women's lives today.
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Source: November Democratic primary debate in Atlanta
Amy Klobuchar on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Nov 20, 2019)
Three months paid family leave, but be fiscally responsible
Q: No parent is federally guaranteed a single day of paid leave when they have a baby. Senator Klobuchar, you're proposing three months. KLOBUCHAR: What I have done with all my plans is I have shown how I'm going to pay for them. I think that is
important when we have a president who has told 10,000 lies. I am not going to go for things just because they sound good. We have an obligation to be fiscally responsible, yes, think big, but make sure we are honest with them about what we can pay for.
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Source: November Democratic primary debate in Atlanta
Andrew Yang on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Nov 20, 2019)
Only U.S. and Papua New Guinea don't have paid family leave
Q: On childcare and paid family leave: Here in Georgia, the average price of infant daycare is $8,500 per child per year. What would you do to ease that financial burden?YANG: There are only two countries in the world that don't have paid family
leave for new moms, the U.S. and Papua New Guinea. That is the entire list. We need to get off this list as soon as possible. I would pass paid family leave as one of the first things we do. I have two kids myself who are 4 and 7, one of whom is
autistic and has special needs, and it's breaking families' backs. We need to start supporting our kids and families from the beginning, because by the time they're showing up to pre-K and kindergarten, in many cases, they're already years behind. So we
need to have a freedom dividend in place from day one, $1,000 a month for every American adult. We should not be pushing everyone to leave the home and go to the workforce. In many cases, it would be better if the parent stays home with the child.
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Source: November Democratic primary debate in Atlanta
Cory Booker on Family Leave:
(Government Reform Oct 10, 2019)
Paid family leave and child tax credit expansion for all
Afghanistan and the Congo have paid family leave. America should have paid family leave. And to see the challenges that parents are having struggling to hold down a job, struggling to find affordable child care,
and this is why my support for everything from paid family leave to expanding the child tax credit are really urgent and those plans are going to apply equally to everyone.
Click for Cory Booker on other issues.
Source: CNN LGBT Town Hall 2020
Joe Sestak on Family Leave:
(Abortion Jul 9, 2019)
Secure reproductive rights; pass family leave
Sestak's website says that he wishes to "secure reproductive rights and reproductive health services for all women," close the gender
wage gap, "advance women's opportunities in the military," and "pass family and medical leave legislation."
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Source: Townhall.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Joe Sestak on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Jul 9, 2019)
Close gender wage gap; pass family leave
Sestak's website says that he wishes to "secure reproductive rights and reproductive health services for all women," close the gender wage
gap, "advance women's opportunities in the military," and "pass family and medical leave legislation."
Click for Joe Sestak on other issues.
Source: Townhall.com, 2019 interview series
John Delaney on Family Leave:
(Jobs Jun 26, 2019)
Create living wage via paid family leave & more
Q: How would you address income inequality?NYC Mayor DeBlasio: You hear folks say there's not enough money. What I say to them is there's plenty of money in this country.
Q: Do you agree?
Rep. Delaney: We need to make sure everyone has a
living wage. I've called for a doubling of the earned income tax credit, raising the minimum wage, and creating paid family leave. That will create a situation where people actually have a living wage. Then we've got to fix our education system.
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Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Cory Booker on Family Leave:
(Tax Reform Apr 4, 2019)
Helped people claim earned-income tax credit
But then he talked about how to flex the earned-income tax credit, and the centers he set up in Newark when he was mayor to help poor people file their returns to claim it. He spoke about paid family leave, and how
American law should be at least as good as the policies in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Source: The Atlantic, "Under the Radar," on 2020 Democratic primary
Bill Weld on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Apr 2, 2019)
2000: Supported Family Leave Act, except paid leave
Weld has spoken about a commitment to advocating for LGBT people, people of color and women who experience domestic violence, but he has not talked much about pay equity. And though he wrote in a 2000 article that he thought it was "madness for the
Republicans during the first Bush administration to be opposed to the Family Leave Act," which guaranteed unpaid leave for medical & family reasons, he has not endorsed the idea of paid leave. As governor, he vetoed minimum wage increases.
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Source: Abigail Abrams, Time magazine, on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Andrew Yang on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Mar 29, 2019)
All other advanced countries have paid family leave policy
It's embarrassing and unconscionable that in the most advanced country in the world we don't account for something as basic as needing to spend time with your child when he or she is born. This drives mothers out of the workforce prematurely and impedes
healthy development of infants, which is something we all pay for. We need to catch up to the civilized world and mandate paid family leave.Problems to be solved: - America's lack of a paid family leave policy results in negative
impacts on health, women's employment rate, and family cohesion
- A lack of a paid family leave policy forces many single parents--especially mothers--into poverty
As President, I will...- Propose and fight for a paid
family leave policy, requiring employers to offer at least 9 months of paid family leave, distributed between parents however they see fit;
- or 6 months of paid leave for a single parent
Click for Andrew Yang on other issues.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website Yang2020.com
John Delaney on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Mar 10, 2019)
Family leave good for families & good for economy
It's a basic right to have paid family leave policies. There's a bunch of legislation to create an insurance fund to allow it to happen. Everyone contributes a small amount; we create a national insurance fund and we allow people to access it.
People need to realize that not only are these policies good for families, and they're good for people, they're also good for our economy. These allow people to be more engaged, have better work-life balance. I think it's an incredibly important policy.
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Source: CNN Town Hall on 2020 Democratic presidential primary
Jay Inslee on Family Leave:
(Jobs Mar 1, 2019)
Increase minimum wage; ensure gender pay equity
Inslee supports increasing the minimum wage, which is currently $12 in Washington state and will rise to $13.50 in 2020. Inslee signed into law a guaranteed paid family leave plan in 2017,
granting eligible parents 12 weeks paid time off for the birth or adoption of a child or for a serious medical condition. He also signed an Equal Pay Opportunity Act that requires employees receive equal pay and work opportunities regardless of gender.
Inslee opposes the Trump administration's trade policies. He has said that "any punitive tariffs to the Asian markets are felt deeply" in the state of Washington.
Inslee believes in a positive working relationship with trade partners and open access to foreign trade markets.
Click for Jay Inslee on other issues.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jay Inslee on Family Leave:
(Budget & Economy Jan 2, 2019)
Leading state in job growth & personal-income growth
Inslee talks about "the other Washington": the experiment in progressive governance that he's led for the past six years that's cut against the conventional wisdom of economics. On his watch, the state has boosted health care, increased access to
early-childhood education and college, raised the minimum wage, expanded paid family leave, invested in infrastructure, and established in-state net neutrality, all while leading the country in job growth, overall personal-income growth, and GDP.
As other states shed residents, people are moving to Washington. It's hard to drive through the parts of Seattle where Amazon has sprouted neighborhoods of coffee shops and artisanal seafood kitchens and argue that the lefty policies Inslee's been
pushing have had the kind of economic downside that their opponents always warn they will.Opponents say, "Market forces, consumer demands, commonsense policies would have done about the same thing that we've had under six years of Jay Inslee."
Click for Jay Inslee on other issues.
Source: The Atlantic on 2020 presidential hopefuls, "Climate Change"
Deb Haaland on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Oct 9, 2018)
National 6-months paid family leave program
A national paid family leave program--with six months of leave for all--so that we can be there for our families in the times that matter most. No one should die alone because their families can't afford to be there, and babies born into poverty need
their parents just as much as babies born into extreme wealth. As a single mom, I believe this policy is especially important to single parents and working families without wealth across America.
Click for Deb Haaland on other issues.
Source: 2018 NM-1st House campaign website DebForCongress.com
Donald Trump on Family Leave:
(Education Jan 30, 2018)
Workforce development, job training, & vocational schools
We want every American to know the dignity of a hard day's work. We can lift our citizens from welfare to work, from dependence to independence, and from poverty to prosperity.As tax cuts create new jobs, let us invest in
workforce development and job training. Let us open great vocational schools so our future workers can learn a craft and realize their full potential. And let us support working families by supporting paid family leave.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: 2018 State of the Union address
Bernie Sanders on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Aug 29, 2017)
Workers need paid family leave and paid sick leave
The Family and Medical Leave Act that Congress passed in 1993 is totally inadequate for our twenty-first-century workforce. It covers only employees in companies with fifty or more employees, and it requires only unpaid, rather than paid, leave.
The economic benefits of a paid family and medical leave more than outweigh the very modest costs of this program. Women who have paid family leave are more likely to stay in the workforce and off federal programs like
Medicaid, food stamps, and public housing.
Families that have paid leave are much less likely to declare bankruptcy. And children have a greater chance of leading healthy and more productive lives if their parents have paid family leave.
We have to make sure that workers in this country have paid sick time. Forty-three million Americans don't have access to paid sick leave today.
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Source: Guide to Political Revolution, by Bernie Sanders, p. 19-20
Donald Trump on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Feb 28, 2017)
Bipartisan effort to implement paid family leave
Democrats and Republicans should unite for the good of the American people. My administration wants to work with members in both parties to make childcare accessible and affordable, to help ensure new parents have paid family leave, to invest in women's
health, and to promote clean air and clear water, and to rebuild our military.True love for our people requires us to find common ground, to advance the common good, and to cooperate on behalf of every American child who deserves a brighter future.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: 2017 State of the Union address to Congress
Donald Trump on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Sep 26, 2016)
Hillary and I agree on paid family leave
CLINTON: I want us to do more to support people who are struggling to balance family and work. I've heard from so many of you about the difficult choices you face and the stresses that you're under. So let's have paid family leave, earned sick days.
Let's be sure we have affordable child care.TRUMP: As far as child care is concerned and so many other things, I think Hillary and I agree on that.
We probably disagree a little bit as to numbers and amounts and what we're going to do, but perhaps we'll be talking about that later. But we have to stop our jobs from being stolen from us. We have to stop our companies from leaving the
United States and, with it, firing all of their people. All you have to do is take a look at Carrier air conditioning in Indianapolis. They left -- fired 1,400 people. They're going to Mexico. So many hundreds and hundreds of companies are doing this.
Click for Donald Trump on other issues.
Source: First 2016 Presidential Debate at Hofstra University
Cory Booker on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Jul 26, 2016)
Paid family leave is a necessity
Paid family leave is something that must happen, because when a parent doesn't have to choose between being there for a sick child and paying rent,
or when a single mom earns an equal wage for equal work, it empowers the most important building block in all of our nation, and that is the family.
Click for Cory Booker on other issues.
Source: Speech at 2016 Democratic National Convention
Kirsten Gillibrand on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Jul 25, 2016)
Family leave & equal pay strengthens America
Families today look almost nothing like they did a generation ago. Yet our policies are stuck in the Mad Men era. We are the only industrialized nation that doesn't guarantee workers paid family leave. Most parents work outside the home, yet
childcare can cost as much as college tuition. Families rely on women's income, but we still don't have equal pay for equal work. This makes no sense, because we know that when families are strong, America is strong.
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Source: Speech at 2016 Democratic National Convention
Cory Booker on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Feb 16, 2016)
Society struggles without paid family leave
Our society claims to value children, but struggling mothers get no paid family leave. The U.S. is the only developed country that doesn't offer government- sponsored paid family leave.
Almost all of the world's nations--from Afghanistan to the Democratic Republic of the Congo--offer this kind of support, but we don't.
Where people have no paid family leave, or vacation days, a child's illness is so much more than the minor stress and inconvenience my mother endured when I got sick. There is the added stress of how to pay a doctor or a co-pay,
how to make rent if you miss a day's work to stay home with your child, how to cope with not being there when your son, hospitalized for asthma, calls for his mother.
Click for Cory Booker on other issues.
Source: United, by Senator Cory Booker, p.133-4
Bernie Sanders on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Oct 18, 2015)
Increase payroll tax to guarantee paid family leave
Q: How would you pay for your proposal of paid medical leave?SANDERS: I think if you're looking about guaranteeing paid family and medical leave, which virtually every other major country has, so that when a mom gives birth,
she doesn't have to go back to work in two weeks, or there's an illness in a family, dad or mom can stay home with the kids. That will require a small increase in the payroll tax.
According to Senator Gillibrand's legislation and we can accomplish that with just a small increase in the payroll tax.
Q: That's going to hit everybody.
SANDERS: Yes, it would.
But it would mean that we would join the rest of the industrialized world. We are behind many other countries in protecting the middle class and working families.
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Source: ABC This Week 2015 interview by Martha Raddatz
Hillary Clinton on Family Leave:
(Abortion Oct 13, 2015)
It's big government to intervene on woman's right to choose
Q: You now support mandated paid family leave. There are so many people who say, "Really? Another government program?"CLINTON: You know, it's always the Republicans or their sympathizers who say, "You can't have paid leave, you can't provide health
care." They don't mind having big government to interfere with a woman's right to choose and to try to take down Planned Parenthood. They're fine with big government when it comes to that. I'm sick of it. We can do these things.
We should not be paralyzed by the Republicans and their constant refrain, "big government this, big government that," that except for what they want to impose on the American people.
I know we can afford it, because we're going to make the wealthy pay for it. That is the way to get it done.
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Bernie Sanders on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Oct 13, 2015)
We're the only major country without paid family leave
Q [to Secretary Clinton]: You now support mandated paid family leave. There are so many people who say, "Really? Another government program?"CLINTON: I know we can afford it, because we're going to make the wealthy pay for it. That is the way to get
it done.
SANDERS: Here's the point: Every other major country on Earth, every one, including some small countries, say that when a mother has a baby, she should stay home with that baby. We are the only major country.
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That's not what the American people want.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Hillary Clinton on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Oct 13, 2015)
US needs paid family leave, to join rest of the world
CLINTON: I want to do more to help us balance family and work. I believe in equal pay for equal work for women, but I also believe it's about time we had paid family leave for American families and join the rest of the world.SANDERS:
[If I'm elected], we are going to have medical and family paid leave, like every other country on Earth.
O'MALLEY: In our state, we actually expanded family leave. We would be a stronger nation economically if we had paid family leave.
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: 2015 CNN Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas
Bernie Sanders on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Jun 11, 2015)
Real family values means paid family leave & sick time
When a mother has a baby and is unable to spend time with that child during the first weeks and months of that baby's life, and is forced back to work because of a lack of money, that is not a family value.When a wife is diagnosed with cancer and a
husband cannot get time off of work to take care of her, that is not a family value.
When a mother is forced to send her sick child to school because she cannot afford to stay home with her that is not a family value.
Those are attacks on everything
that a family is supposed to stand for. It is time to join the rest of the industrialized world by showing the people of this country that we are not just a nation that talks about family values, but that we are a nation that is prepared to live up to
these ideals by making sure that workers in this country have access to paid family leave, paid sick time and paid vacations just like workers in every other wealthy country on earth.
Click for Bernie Sanders on other issues.
Source: The Essential Bernie Sanders, by Jonathan Tasini, p. 57-9
Barack Obama on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Aug 27, 2008)
Help families with paid sick days and better family leave
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
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Source: Speech at 2008 Democratic National Convention
Hillary Clinton on Family Leave:
(Families & Children Sep 25, 1996)
Family Leave Act is a good start; paid leave better
When I became pregnant in 1979, my law firm did not have a maternity leave policy. I wound up with a four-month maternity leave that enabled me to spend much-needed time getting accustomed to my new role as a mother.
But most new parents don’t meet with anything like this kind of accommodation.The Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees unpaid leave to employees in firms with more than 50 workers.
Many parents, however, cannot afford to forgo pay for even a few weeks, and very few employers in America offer paid maternity leave.
Only about half of all female workers of childbearing age are eligible for short-term disability benefits that would
cover pregnancy and childbirth, because the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, while it prohibits discrimination against these conditions, does not mandate coverage where none exists.
Click for Hillary Clinton on other issues.
Source: It Takes A Village, by Hillary Clinton, p.198-199
Page last updated: Mar 01, 2022
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