PathWays PA Policy Blog

The Senate Labor and Industry Committee just approved a bill that would expand FMLA in Pennsylvania to cover siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren! This bill has been introduced over at least 4 sessions now, and today is the first time it has come out of committee. Joanne’s Law, SB 479, would allow workers who qualify for the FMLA to use that time to care for their siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren (the FMLA only covers parents, children, and spouses). While the leave would be unpaid, it would be a great step towards getting a full paid family leave program in PA. Please read the story behind Joanne’s Law here, and then take action! Call your Senators to ask them to bring Joanne’s Law up for a vote and to vote yes! Please also call Katrina in Senator Scarnati's office with your name, phone number, and support for the bill - you can reach her at 717-787-7084.

Today I had the opportunity to present materials on paid leave and financial resources at a cancer navigators meeting. We're putting these materials online so more people can access them. Special thanks to PathWays PA (in particular Paula Staton) and Family Values @ Work for their research and support! Laws that help patients and caregivers at work Financial Resources for patients and caregivers Resources for staff and counselors to share Put the FMLA to Work for You (PS- please remember that bit.ly links have to be typed exactly as they are, including capitalization, to work!)

The FAMILY Act was introduced to Congress in March of this year. Under this bill, workers would have access to paid sick time. This recompense can help families in a great deal of ways. The way one would apply for “caregiving days” would be through the Office of Paid Family and Medical Leave, which is established in the Act. This Office would then deem eligibility for benefits. In order to be eligible, one must meet multiple requirements. One must be insured under Social Security and held a job in the past 12 months before applying. The “caregiving” must have occurred from 90 days before to 30 days following the application. Monthly recompense can range from $580 to $4,000, depending on one’s income. The amount of benefits is a percentage of one’s wages, therefore a part-time or lower tier employee can still receive assistance, however their assistance may be of a lower monetary value than a full-time employee. The bill covers gaps that FMLA creates. Many who qualify for time un...

The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) highlighted some important statistics  on the relationship between paid sick leave and preventive health care. Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect in 2010, health care access has opened up to numerous Americans, including low-income earners who were previously uninsured and women seeking preventive care . Unfortunately, too many Americans simply do not have the time to actually receive these services. More than 40 million workers in the U.S. (39 percent) have no paid sick days and nearly 95 million workers (87 percent) have no paid family leave. 80 percent of low-wage workers earning $15,000 or less per year have no paid sick days. Work protections such as paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave are crucial for preventive health care, which in turn is key for healthy and safe lives. Routine health checkups and screenings can help prevent or detect early on diseases and other health problems, but a 2015 study ...

Celebrate National Work and Family Month with a Facebook chat about the need for paid family and medical leave this Thursday, 10/23 from 1-2 pm. The chat will be co-hosted by the National Partnership for Women & Families, MomsRising, CLASP, Family Values @ Work, and Working Mother magazine, on behalf of the FAMILY Act coalition. Join the conversation here . Interested in PathWays PA blog posts on similar topics? 6/16/14 - FAMILY Act Week of Action Starts Today! 2/5/14 - We’ve Come Not So Long a Way 12/11/13 - Sen. Gillibrand and Rep. DeLauro to Introduce FAMILY Act Thursday!

From our friends at the National Partnership for Women and Families  Join the growing list of partners planning to call on the president and Congress to support the Family And Medical Insurance Leave Act (FAMILY Act)! You'll find templates for many of the suggested activities listed below! You could: Ask your affiliates/partners/chapters/members/leaders to call or email their members of Congress Join a FAMILY Act tweet storm on Thursday, June 19th, from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. EDT (For more information, contact Sadie Kliner at skliner@nationalpartnership.org .) Share infographics on your social media sites and ask followers to contact their legislators Support USAction's postcard deliveries here in D.C. and in key districts via social media or on the ground (For more information, contact Christine Sloane at csloane@nationalpartnership.org or Patty Snee at psnee@usaction.org .) Join the National Partnership on the Hill on Wednesday, June 18th, and Friday, June 20th, or h...

2016 Update - We passed earned sick days in Philadelphia in 2015, but not much else has changed. 1993. Just typing the year sets my mind spiraling through happy memories. 1993 was the year I began high school. It was a year of flannel shirts and clunky boots. It was the year I fell in love with baseball, and the year my dad and I went to see the Phillies in the playoffs. It is a year I can’t think of without smiling. A lot has changed since then. My fashion sense is (somewhat) different, and so are the members of the Phillies. It’s been five years since I watched a playoff game with my dad: we managed to watch the Phillies on a tiny TV in his hospital room a few months before he died. As for my high school friends, when we talk, it is mostly on Facebook. Oddly enough, though, what my high schools friends and I often talk about is a bill that was signed into law on February 5, 1993, without any of us paying much attention: the Family and Medical Leave Act. This act guarantees up...

Today, American women are still paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men, nine out of ten American workers don't have paid family leave and nearly 40 million don't have a single paid sick day. Plus - there is a critical need for affordable, quality child care in this country. We can change that. Tomorrow, PathWays PA, our allies, and champions in Congress invite you to join an unprecedented national conversation - moderated by actor Cynthia Nixon - about these issues and the changes that will advance income equality and economic security for women and families in America. Can you make it? Here are the details: WHAT : Let's Talk About It: Advancing women and families in 2014 A National Tele-Townhall Event on fair pay, paid leave, and access to child care WHEN : Wednesday, January 29, 2014 Anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act 8:30 p.m. ET  WHERE : From the comfort of your phone No numbers to dial, we'll call you to connect to the event  ...

Paid leave champions Senator Gillibrand and Representative DeLauro are set to introduce the Family And Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, a national paid family and medical leave insurance program that would provide workers with up to 12 weeks of paid leave. The legislation will be introduced this Thursday, December 12 on Capitol Hill. Please take a moment and ask your member of Congress to be a cosponsor the FAMILY Act bill .

Please help prepare for the bill introduction and the multi-year campaign to pass the FAMILY Act by emailing your lists or reaching out via social media to encourage people to submit their paid leave stories. The stories of real people are crucial to painting the picture for opinion leaders and policy makers. Please share the link to this story collection survey with your members, supporters, affiliates and chapters and, if applicable, fill it out yourself.

For the first time ever, the United States Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a budget bill that includes $5 million to help states develop paid leave programs. The full Senate and House of Representatives still need to vote to keep the State Paid Leave Fund in the budget bill. Only 11 percent of employees in the U.S. are provided any kind of paid family leave by their employers. The State Paid Leave Fund can help by providing states with grant money to assist with the planning and start up of state paid leave programs. These programs are good for families, they are also great for tax payers and the economy too. Help keep the momentum for paid leave going and make sure Congress knows we want the State Paid Leave Fund included in the budget.

From our friends at the National Partnership for Women and Families Last week, National Partnership Senior Advisor Judith Lichtman testified on Capitol Hill as the only voice of opposition to the so-called "comp time" bill. Despite its name, the Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1406) is an empty promise — a smoke-and-mirrors bill — that offers neither the flexibility nor the support that working families need. That's why we must urge Congress to look beyond the misleading name and assess this partisan legislation for what it really is: a bad idea. The “comp time” bill claims to give hourly workers more time with their families by allowing them, through an agreement with their employers, to choose paid time off as compensation for working more than 40 hours in a week. In reality, it would give workers less time, less money and less flexibility. It would erode overtime protections guaranteed by the Fair Labor Standards Act. It would mean a pay cut for wor...

Tomorrow from 1PM-2PM, as part of the festivities for the 20th anniversary of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the National Partnership for Women and Families is coordinating a tweet storm. Join in and help raise the profile of this landmark legislation and the need for next steps. Use #FMLA20

Weekly Newsletter Week of January 22, 2013 Join Us Online! Join PathWays PA at City Council on Thursday! We are pleased to announce that on January 24, 2013, Philadelphia City Council will be honoring PathWays PA for being named the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce's Non-Profit Organization of the Year!  Please join us for the citation presentation at 10 AM in room 400 of City Hall. This Week's Issues to Watch ::  Join PathWays PA at City Council on Thursday! ::  Support Earned Sick Days in Philadelphia! ::  Vote for PathWays PA's DoGooder Video Today! ::  FMLA Extends Care to Adult Children ::  Join CeaseFire PA to Take a Stand Against Gun Violence Support Earned Sick Days in Philadelphia! You may have noticed that this flu season has caught the attention of the news media. CNN Money, 6ABC,  Business Finance Magazine , and  The Philadelphia Inquirer  are among those repo...

At PathWays PA we receive many questions from the community about their rights as workers. To help answer some of these questions we thought a series of blog posts explaining some of those rights workers have would be helpful. We are starting with the Family Medical Leave Act because it is one of the topics we are asked about most often.  Under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) eligible employees are able to take unpaid but job protected leave for certain life events. During the leave the employee has the right to remain on the employer’s health insurance and upon return they have the right to be restored to the same or an equivalent position. Who is covered:  FMLA applies to public agencies, all public and private elementary and secondary schools, and companies with 50 or more employees. Employees of these entities are eligible for leave if they have workeds for their employer for at least 1,250 hours over 12 months. What is the coverage:  Eligible emp...

On June 27 at 2 PM, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division will host a free webinar to help workers and employers understand the Family and Medical Leave Act.   The webinar will give workers and employers a chance to submit questions that will be answered by an FMLA expert from the department. Workers and employers who wish to participate can register at http://s.dol.gov/T2 . As part of the department's continuing effort to make the FMLA more accessible, the department has published "Need Time? The Employee's Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act." The booklet is designed to answer questions such as who can take qualifying leave and what protections the law provides, and is available at http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/employeeguide.htm .

Federal Policy Updates  HELP MAKE EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK A REALITY On April 17th, we honored Equal Pay Day – the day where a women’s salary will equal that of a man’s from the previous year. Now, one month later, we need your help to take action in support of equal pay.   In the next few weeks, we expect the Senate to vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act. The vote could come at any moment, so we need you to contact your Senators today. Ask your Senators to show their support for equal pay by co-sponsoring the Paycheck Fairness Act. While women make up more than half of the workforce and more than 2/3 of them are their families’ principal breadwinners, women still earn on average only 77% of what their male counterparts do. Women need fair wages that will allow them and their families to be economically secure and the legal recourse to ensure they can. The Paycheck Fairness Act will strengthen the 1963 Equal Pay Act because it will: Deter wage discrimination by ...

State Policy Updates $1 BILLION BUSINESS TAX CUT EXPECTED TO CUT SERVICES THAT HELP KIDS, FAMILIES: REACH LAWMAKERS ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK The first priority before the Pennsylvania House when lawmakers return to session next week is to vote on a bill that will cut corporate taxes by close to a billion dollars by the end of the decade, with no commitment from companies to put people back to work . Cutting these taxes will also encourage deep cuts to domestic violence services, education, adult literacy and food pantries due to lost revenue. Billed as a measure to close corporate tax loopholes, House Bill 2150 is paired with such big tax breaks for businesses that it will be a huge net revenue drain on the state for years to come. If you have feelings about this bill, you can send a Message to Lawmakers on Facebook and Twitter . Sample messages include: @Lawmaker Vote no on HB2150. Corporate tax cuts will hurt children and families. PA can’t afford a decade of deep #Pab...

In June 2008, Anne Marie faced a difficult decision .  Her sister, Joanne, had been diagnosed with late stage, terminal cervical cancer that left her in need of round-the-clock care.  Joanne was unmarried and without children, and her remaining parent was elderly and suffering from her own medical problems.  Since Joanne needed IV fluids and a feeding tube, hospice was not an option.  Rather than see her sister suffer alone, Anne Marie took the time to care for her sister until the end of her life - and lost her job in the process. Even though Anne Marie applied for Family and Medical Leave Act coverage at her job, her application was denied because she was using it to care for a sister.  Had Joanne been her mother, spouse, or child, the leave would have been granted.  But even though Joanne was a member of Anne Marie's immediate family, FMLA was not an option. To combat this issue, some states have passed laws allowing siblings to use the FMLA program....

Federal Updates SUPPORT WORKING FAMILIES: ASK YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO SUPPORT THE STATE PAID LEAVE FUND IN THE LABOR HHS APPROPRIATIONS BILL Help urge the Appropriations Committee to include the State Paid Leave Fund in the Fiscal Year 2013 Labor, Health and Human Services & Education bill. The Fund is included in the President’s budget at $5 million and would provide competitive grants to states considering paid leave programs. The goal of these initiatives is to help families maintain their financial security when illness strikes or family caregiving needs arise. Federal support is critical to fuel innovation in leave policy. Through the State Paid Leave Fund, states could develop and plan for the implementation of paid family and medical leave programs. Grant funds would be used for activities such as program design, research and analysis, stakeholder consultation, actuarial analyses, and development of a financing models and benefit structures. Nearly all worker...