Center for American Progress

Donate

Paid Leave

Most Americans don’t have the paid leave they need to care for themselves and their families when they need it most—and many don’t have any paid leave at all. The United States stands alone among its economic peers in failing to guarantee any paid leave at the national level, with profound consequences for the nation’s economy, its health, and the security of its working families. The Center for American Progress is committed to ensuring that all Americans, regardless of how or where they work, have the paid leave they need, through policies that work for them.

Featured Experts

More Experts

Latest

Compact View

  • Filter by
  • Type
    • Type
    Show Results
  • Date
    • Date
    • Date

    • to

    Custom range Fixed range
  • Topic
    • Topic
    Show Results
  • State
    • State
    Show Results
  • Toggle Search

  • 108 Results

Clear filters

The State of Safe Leave Report
Close-up through Capitol window

The State of Safe Leave

U.S. states are increasingly providing safe leave for workers who need time off to deal with the impacts of sexual and domestic violence.

Molly Weston Williamson

Fact Sheet: Building an Economy That Delivers for Women Fact Sheet
A woman pushing a stroller walks through an atrium with light pouring in and a small pool reflecting plant life

Fact Sheet: Building an Economy That Delivers for Women

This fact sheet offers a brief summary of CAP’s “Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy,” which provides federal and state policymakers with the tools they need to center women in their economic plans and grow the economy.

Rose Khattar

Rewriting the Playbook: How Women Are Powering the Economy Past Event

Rewriting the Playbook: How Women Are Powering the Economy

Please Join the Center for American Progress for the launch of the "Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy."

1333 H St NW, Washington, DC

Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy Report

Playbook for the Advancement of Women in the Economy

This collection of policy recommendations reveals how policymakers can grow the economy by centering the changes that women need in their economic platforms.

Rose Khattar, Sara Estep

Why Self-Employed Workers Need Paid Leave Report
Capitol dome at sunrise, seen through chain-link fencing

Why Self-Employed Workers Need Paid Leave

For many self-employed Americans, the cost of taking leave for illness or family needs is too high without support, shaping both what self-employment looks like and who has access to it.

Molly Weston Williamson

Universal Paid Sick Time Would Strengthen Public Health and Benefit Businesses Report
Image showing a mother wearing a visor as she holds a child, who has a face mask on.

Universal Paid Sick Time Would Strengthen Public Health and Benefit Businesses

A national, guaranteed right to paid sick time is essential for the well-being of workers and their families and would have profound positive impacts on public health and businesses.

Isabela Salas-Betsch

Paid Leave Policies Must Include Chosen Family Article
Photo shows a couple sitting together on a park bench.

Paid Leave Policies Must Include Chosen Family

In order to better support all workers—especially LGBTQI+ workers—policymakers must design paid leave policies that are inclusive of chosen family and reflect the diverse caregiving needs of people across the country.

Caroline Medina, Molly Weston Williamson

State Momentum for Paid Leave Past Event

State Momentum for Paid Leave

Please join the Center for American Progress and the National Partnership for Women & Families to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act and to discuss momentum for paid leave at the state level.

Online only

Fact Sheet: The State of Women in the Labor Market in 2023 Fact Sheet
Photo shows a woman in a black uniform sweeping the floor under a booth table in a restaurant.

Fact Sheet: The State of Women in the Labor Market in 2023

Thanks to the strong economic recovery, women’s labor force participation is reaching new highs, with prime-age women’s employment back to pre-pandemic levels—although long-standing pay gaps and occupational segregation remain challenges.

Beth Almeida, Isabela Salas-Betsch

Revolutionizing the Workplace: Why Long COVID and the Increase of Disabled Workers Require a New Approach Report
A doctor holds a patients hand during an appointment.

Revolutionizing the Workplace: Why Long COVID and the Increase of Disabled Workers Require a New Approach

Using new data from the U.S. Census Bureau to examine the impacts of long COVID on the labor market, this report recommends that employers, unions, and policymakers create better workplaces for disabled workers and all workers.

Mia Ives-Rublee, Rose Khattar, Anona Neal

Women’s Stories on Economic Justice and Health Care Article

Women’s Stories on Economic Justice and Health Care

This CAP Action storybook features women in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Hampshire whose stories center on issues from prescription drug pricing and health insurance, to child care and paid leave.

the Center for American Progress Action Fund

Strengthening Federal Network Adequacy Requirements for ACA Marketplace Plans Report
A man holds his wife's hand after she returns from the hospital, where doctors performed an emergency cesarean section.

Strengthening Federal Network Adequacy Requirements for ACA Marketplace Plans

In order to improve maternal health care access and outcomes for millions of pregnant and postpartum people in the United States, the federal government must ensure that health insurance plans available through the ACA marketplace offer robust maternity care provider networks.

Carolyn Sabini, Elyssa Spitzer, Osub Ahmed

All Workers Deserve Access to Paid Family and Medical Leave Video

All Workers Deserve Access to Paid Family and Medical Leave

A paid family and medical leave program must be national, comprehensive, and inclusive to meet the needs of all workers, their families, and the economy.

Juli Adhikari, Diana Boesch

Making the Case for Chosen Family in Paid Family and Medical Leave Policies Article
Transgender women at an outreach center in Washington in 2016. (Getty/Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Making the Case for Chosen Family in Paid Family and Medical Leave Policies

To ensure that LGBTQ individuals are included in paid family and medical leave policies, lawmakers must design the policies to cover diverse family relationships and allow for caregiving of chosen family.

Lindsay Mahowald, Diana Boesch

Quick Facts on Paid Family and Medical Leave Article
A COVID-19 patient, trying to recover at home, grabs fresh air on the front stoop of her home in Brooklyn, New York, on November 20, 2020. (Getty/Andrew Lichtenstein)

Quick Facts on Paid Family and Medical Leave

The United States urgently needs a comprehensive paid family and medical leave program that will boost the health and economic well-being of American workers and families.

Diana Boesch

How COVID-19 Sent Women’s Workforce Progress Backward Report

How COVID-19 Sent Women’s Workforce Progress Backward

The collapse of the child care sector and drastic reductions in school supervision hours as a result of COVID-19 could drive millions of mothers out of the paid workforce. Inaction could cost billions, undermine family economic security, and set gender equity back a generation.

Julie Kashen, Sarah Jane Glynn, Amanda Novello

The Disability Community Needs Paid Family and Medical Leave Article
A 10-year-old holds her younger brother, who has cerebral palsy, in their family's three-bedroom house in the Kenilworth neighborhood of Northeast Washington, D.C., December 2019. (Getty/The Washington Post/Sarah L. Voisin)

The Disability Community Needs Paid Family and Medical Leave

Paid family and medical leave is a disability rights issue and helps provide people with disabilities the economic security they need to manage their health, care for loved ones, or receive care from their family.

Diana Boesch, Rebecca Cokley

Women Have Paid the Price for Trump’s Regulatory Agenda Report

Women Have Paid the Price for Trump’s Regulatory Agenda

The Trump administration has issued dozens of regulations that have threatened women’s progress and cost them billions—revealing a fundamental disregard for women.

Osub Ahmed, Shilpa Phadke, Diana Boesch

The Urgent Case for Permanent Paid Leave Report
(The dome of U.S. Capitol building is seen on January 16, 2020, Washington, D.C.)

The Urgent Case for Permanent Paid Leave

Policymakers must consider lessons learned from the emergency paid leave laws passed in response to the coronavirus pandemic in order to design national, permanent paid leave policies that ensure racial, gender, and economic equity and meet the needs of families.

Diana Boesch

Coronavirus Paid Leave Exemptions Exclude Millions of Workers From Coverage Article
The sun sets over the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., January 2020. (Getty/Samuel Corum)

Coronavirus Paid Leave Exemptions Exclude Millions of Workers From Coverage

State and national data show that millions of private sector workers are excluded from emergency paid leave protections due to exemptions in federal legislation and regulations.

Sarah Jane Glynn

The Rising Cost of Inaction on Work-Family Policies Article
Two women who have been living in homeless shelters after struggling to find jobs that would cover the cost of child care wait with their children for the bus in Atlanta, December 2015. (Getty/Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

The Rising Cost of Inaction on Work-Family Policies

Continued inaction from Congress on work-family policies, including the current lack of access to affordable child care and comprehensive paid family and medical leave, costs workers $31.9 billion in lost wages annually.

Sarah Jane Glynn

Interactive: Opportunities for States To Improve Infant Health Outcomes Interactive

Interactive: Opportunities for States To Improve Infant Health Outcomes

This interactive allows users to see states' progress toward implementing policies to improve maternal and infant mortality and eliminate racial disparities in health across three domains: healthy families, economic and work supports, and infant health outcomes.

Cristina Novoa, Mathew Brady

Rhetoric vs. Reality: Not All Paid Leave Proposals Are Equal Report

Rhetoric vs. Reality: Not All Paid Leave Proposals Are Equal

Paid leave proposals which only provide benefits to parents of new children or are funded through cuts to other programs will not meet the needs of working families.

Diana Boesch

Angela and Patrice: A Conversation on the Need for Affordable Child Care Video
(A still from a video detailing the effects of a lack of affordable child care on Angela and her daughter Patrice's family.)

Angela and Patrice: A Conversation on the Need for Affordable Child Care

Angela and her daughter Patrice discuss the effects of the lack of quality, affordable child care on their family as Patrice raises two young daughters.

Andrew Satter, Brooke Butler

Paid Family and Medical Leave Must Be Comprehensive to Help Workers and Their Children Report
A 3-year-old girl gives her father a kiss as she waits to undergo surgery at a children's hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Paid Family and Medical Leave Must Be Comprehensive to Help Workers and Their Children

New CAP analysis of the 2012 FMLA employee survey provides evidence that in 52 percent of all FMLA leaves, workers were also caring for children at home, highlighting the need for comprehensive paid family and medical leave.

Diana Boesch

Veterans and Military Families Need Comprehensive Paid Leave Solutions Article
A U.S. Marine looks at his daughter for the first time with his wife during a homecoming at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California, December 2016. (Getty/Sandy Huffaker)

Veterans and Military Families Need Comprehensive Paid Leave Solutions

Military service members, veterans, and their families have many reasons they need leave, and, along with all Americans, need comprehensive paid family and medical leave policies.

Diana Boesch

Efforts to Combat Pregnancy Discrimination Article
A group of people sit and take notes in an office. (Getty/Jose Luis Pelaez Inc.)

Efforts to Combat Pregnancy Discrimination

Women need comprehensive solutions that recognize the persistent role of race, ethnicity, and economic status in creating obstacles to opportunity for pregnant women.

Nora Ellmann, Jocelyn Frye

State Fact Sheets: Economic Security for Women and Families Article
A mother and two caregivers carry children to a conductive education therapy session. (Getty/Andrew Francis Wallace)

State Fact Sheets: Economic Security for Women and Families

In order to advance economic security for women and families in each state, policymakers should prioritize policies that ensure economic equality and health care access for all.

the Women’s Initiative

Workers Should Not Have to Choose Between Retirement and Caring for Their Families Article
Activists participate in a rally urging the expansion of Social Security benefits in front of the White House, July 13, 2015, in Washington, D.C. (Getty/Win McNamee)

Workers Should Not Have to Choose Between Retirement and Caring for Their Families

A recent parental leave proposal with administration support would require workers to dip into their future Social Security funds to replace income lost during the leave period—and delay their eventual retirement.

Shilpa Phadke

People Need Paid Leave Policies That Cover Chosen Family Report

People Need Paid Leave Policies That Cover Chosen Family

Nearly one-third of people in the United States have taken leave to support a chosen family member’s health needs—but public policy largely fails to support them.

Katherine Gallagher Robbins, Laura E. Durso, Frank J. Bewkes, 1 More Eliza Schultz

Paid Family and Medical Leave: By the Numbers Fact Sheet

Paid Family and Medical Leave: By the Numbers

Current data show the need for a comprehensive paid family and medical leave policy.

the Women’s Initiative

Related Priorities

Tackling Climate Change and Environmental Injustice
Issue

Tackling Climate Change and Environmental Injustice

We pursue climate action that meets the crisis’s urgency, creates good-quality jobs, benefits disadvantaged communities, and restores U.S. credibility on the global stage.

Restoring Social Trust in Democracy
Issue

Restoring Social Trust in Democracy

Democracy is under attack at home and abroad. We must act to ensure it is accessible to all, accountable, and can serve as a force of good.

Building an Economy for All
Issue

Building an Economy for All

Economic growth must be built on the foundation of a strong and secure middle class so that all Americans benefit from growth.

This field is hidden when viewing the form

Default Opt Ins

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form

Variable Opt Ins

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.