Updated:NEW YORK — More working U.S. parents than ever are celebrating their first Mother’s Day with hard-fought access to paid time off to care for newborns. But the majority still must forego pay to care for new babies or other loved ones, even as efforts to expand paid parental and family leave gain traction.
For families without paid leave, babies “are going to day care when they are two weeks old. They do not even have immunizations. They’re not on regular feeding patterns. Moms are giving up breastfeeding far sooner than they would like to,” Elizabeth Gedmark, vice president at nonprofit advocacy organization A Better Balance, said during a recent virtual conference to advocate for federal paid family leave organized by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
“They showed their true colors," said Householder, who shared her story through the Children First, a organization campaigning for Pennsylvania's proposed law. In January, a House bipartisan group led by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat, and Rep. Stephanie Bice, an Oklahoma Republican, released to extend paid family leave to more workers, including funding for state programs or stronger tax breaks for small businesses to do so.
The new benefits came too late for Carrie Martin-Haley's family. Neither Martin-Haley, a small business owner in Denver who gave birth to her son in September 2023, nor her husband had any paid time off, so Martin-Haley had to put aside her dreams of opening a brick-and-mortar storefront for her business, Summit Sustainable Goods.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: KPBSnews - 🏆 240. / 63 Read more »
Source: NPR - 🏆 96. / 63 Read more »
Source: KUTV2News - 🏆 281. / 63 Read more »
Source: KPRC2 - 🏆 80. / 68 Read more »
Source: CBSNewYork - 🏆 268. / 63 Read more »
Source: WashTimes - 🏆 235. / 63 Read more »