The Pennsylvania women and families we serve are in desperate need of paid leave to survive this pandemic. Congressional emergency paid leave benefits provided in the 2020 Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) expired on December 31, 2020. The limited stimulus package adopted prior to President Biden’s inauguration provided only tax credits to employers for voluntary paid leave.
It is now February, and Pennsylvania families are in crisis. The Women’s Law Project calls on Congress to pass emergency paid leave protections currently included in President Biden’s COVID-19 Stimulus Response Plan.
Women, who are the sole or co-breadwinner in two-thirds of Pennsylvania families, continue to bear the brunt of childcare and family caregiving activities, which have become increasingly difficult when schools, daycares, and adult caregiving institutions have been closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, they make up the majority of workers providing essential services and have suffered greater economic hardship during the pandemic. This is especially true for low-income women and women of color, who are more likely to be the primary source of income for their families and the least likely to have paid sick or family leave from their employers.
In Pennsylvania, some workers have some paid sick days in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but local ordinances do not cover all employees. Pennsylvania workers need the federal government to guarantee paid public health leave.
Vulnerable workers who lack paid sick days and paid family leave have no options should they or their family members become infected with the coronavirus but to go to work sick and potentially spread COVID-19 to their fellow workers and the public. If too sick to work and without paid leave, they will surely experience food shortages and potential loss of shelter as well as loss of their jobs, which have no guarantee of return. In December, a net loss of 140,000 jobs were all attributed to Black women and women of color who were squeezed out of the workforce in no small part due to a lack of paid leave.
This no-win situation has been dubbed a “she-cession” by policy experts.
A recent study found that employers who had paid leave policies have been better able to navigate the pandemic, demonstrating the benefits of paid leave for both workers and employers. For workers and the public, these policies save lives. It is no surprise that a recent study has shown that emergency sick leave reduced the spread of COVID-19, making a strong case for reinstituting and expanding the measure as proposed by the President.
The Biden proposal’s robust paid sick and leave benefits will protect workers and businesses and is an important public health safeguard. Help for our workers, including the many who have been serving as essential workers throughout the pandemic, cannot come soon enough.
The Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond.
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