'Closed for paid leave': More than 70 businesses nationwide shut doors on day of action
Source: ABC News/GMA
March 18, 2024, 12:32 PM
More than 70 businesses across the country shut their doors Monday in a show of solidarity to call for federal paid family and medical leave. The day of action coincided with Women's History Month, highlighting the value of investing in women in the workforce.
"This is an action meant to signify the value of women's underpaid, unpaid care and work, and to show what will happen, a symbolic look, if more women are pushed out of the workforce because the United States does not pass paid leave federally," said Dawn Huckelbridge, founding director of Paid Leave for All, the campaign behind the day of action.
Currently, there are no federal laws in the United States that require employers to provide paid days off. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2023, just 27% of civilian employees -- private industry and state and local government workers -- had access to paid family leave benefits.
The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, entitles some employees to unpaid family and medical leave, up to 12 weeks within a 12-month period. According to the BLS, 90% of civilian employees had access to unpaid family leave in 2023. Universal paid leave was on the table at the federal level in 2021 with the Build Back Better Act, which passed the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/closed-paid-leave-70-businesses-nationwide-shut-doors/story?id=108240704
