Access to essential work-family supports such as paid family leave varies sharply by income level in the United States. Currently, the country’s highest earners are more than five times as likely than its lowest earners to have access to paid family and medical leave. This inequality of access both reinforces and reproduces inequalities of income, wealth, and life outcomes for successive generations. In order to level the playing field, families need policies that give everyone equal protection from the income shocks that too often go hand in hand with caregiving responsibilities. The nation needs policies that bring paid family leave to all.
Please join the Center for American Progress as we welcome Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, who will deliver remarks regarding exciting state and local paid leave initiatives. Sec. Perez’s remarks will be followed by a panel discussion, moderated by CAP Senior Fellow Judith Warner, about how policies such as paid family leave can and must be used as a vital tool in fighting income inequality.
Welcoming remarks:
Carmel Martin, Executive Vice President for Policy, Center for American Progress
Keynote:
Thomas E. Perez, U.S. Secretary of Labor
Featured panelists:
Heidi Shierholz, Chief Economist to the Secretary of Labor
Ariel Kalil, Professor and Director of the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago
Kitty Richards, Chief of Staff for DC Councilmember Elissa Silverman
Dawn Smith , Master Teacher at Educare Washington, DC.
Moderated by:
Judith Warner, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress