Vicki Shabo Submits Letter for the Record to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance

Vicki Shabo, New America's Better Life Lab Senior Fellow for Gender Equity, Paid Leave and Care Policy and Strategy, submitted a letter for the record to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance's Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID), and members applauding full committee's first-ever hearing focused solely on paid family and medical leave, Exploring Paid Leave: Policy, Practice, and Impact on the Workforce.

Shabo writes, "We often invoke values of freedom and family in this country, but our country’s current approach to people’s need to care for themselves and their loved ones does not honor or respect these values."

Shabo's letter discusses the gatekeeping role that employers play in determining whether workers can care for a loved one or themselves or welcome a new child – and the dramatic, growing gaps between "have" and "have-nots" when it comes to paid leave by industry, job, and wage level. It discusses state-level approaches to paid family and medical leave and lessons learned from state innovation. It summarizes key data on the benefits of paid leave for workers, families, smaller and larger businesses and the economy. Finally, it proposes key elements of a workable national paid leave plan and urges Congress to take swift action in enacting an evidence-based national paid leave program.

Shabo is a paid leave policy expert, who has testified numerous times before Congress and state legislatures. In 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives included a national paid family and medical leave program in the Build Back Better Act, which it approved in November of that year, but the full legislation never made it to the Senate. In 2023, the Biden Administration proposed $325 billion over 10 years in permanent funding for a national paid leave program in its Fiscal Year 2024 budget. This hearing is the latest chapter in the long fight for nationwide access to paid family and medical leave.

Read Shabo's full letter to the Senate Finance Committee here: