Conclusion

Far from the conventional wisdom that care and caregiving are seen as women’s issues, or side issues, this survey provides evidence of overwhelming bipartisan support for families and caregivers and on the value of care in the United States. Men feel supported and satisfied providing care, and believe it is the right thing to do, yet across party lines they face economic hurdles when it comes to being able to take time off work to provide care. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike experience challenges juggling work and care, and need paid leave from work in order to manage their caregiving responsibilities. Lawmakers should take note of this widespread, bipartisan support for caregiving and paid family leave when considering family-supportive legislation, particularly as families are under severe strain in the pandemic and global economic downturn.

As it is, the United States is the only large, developed nation without a national policy guaranteeing paid family and medical leave for new parents, to care for themselves while ill, and for those with sick and aging family members. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act allows for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Eight states and the District of Columbia have passed or implemented their own paid family leave plans—funded by employees through a payroll deduction. And voluntary policies offered by private employers cover 19 percent of U.S. workers, with high-income workers more than four times as likely to have access to it than lower income workers. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020 Congress passed the historic Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) which allowed many workers in the U.S. access to paid sick leave and paid family care leave, for the first time.

Because of this patchwork policy landscape, and because the temporary COVID-19 response packages included large exemptions at the last minute, millions of Americans still have no access to any paid leave or programs that enable them to take time to care for their families without risking their jobs or financial insecurity. And while there has been growing consensus on the value of a paid family and medical leave policy, lawmakers continue to differ on who it should cover—Republican lawmakers favor a policy for new parents only despite data that shows the need for leave policies for reasons other than birth or adoption—and how it should be funded.

Advocates have argued that many workers in the United States are not eligible for or can’t afford to take unpaid leave, so a federal paid leave policy would help people across the gender spectrum to take the time they need to care for themselves and their families. An absence of a federal policy that normalizes caregiving across gender and puts pressure on workplaces to accommodate workers with caregiving responsibilities has also contributed to stubborn gender gaps. Although men began to take on more child and elder care responsibilities as more women entered the workforce in the 1970s and 1980s, workplaces still expect men to put work first, and assume women, even if working full-time, will still take on the majority of the care work. But earlier Better Life Lab and NORC analysis found that men need and want to take time off work to care for their families just as much as women do.

Given the findings of this data which show broad support and value for caregiving and leave from work to provide care, here are some family-supportive policies with widespread support from Americans across party lines:

• A permanent paid family and medical leave policy of at least 12 weeks so people can care for newborn children, seriously ill family members, and their own health conditions.
• A paid sick days policy to guarantee that workers can take time off when they are sick and still have a job to return to.
• A significant federal investment in a high quality care infrastructure and a family care program that everyone pays into, like Social Security, and everyone could access to better support caregiving needs, with a broad reach to include infant and childcare, care for a disability, and care for sick or aging family members and adults.

In this moment of sharp political divisiveness, when there are many clear and palpable differences of opinions, priorities and ideologies separating Republicans and Democrats, supporting care, caregiving and families is a unifying factor across the political spectrum. This survey found that the majority of Americans, regardless of gender and party, want to have the time to hold, care for, bond and play with their newborns, prepare a grandparent’s meal when they’re too sick to move, and help a chronically ill relative navigate a complicated medical system. But many people, both Republican and Democrat, instead are compelled to head into an office or workplace and miss these crucial moments to ensure their bills are paid and their families financially stable. More than two-thirds of caregivers who were employed while providing care (68 percent) reported missing work to provide care, and almost half (43 percent) had to reduce hours at work to handle family responsibilities—with no differences between Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. The universal need for paid family and medical leave and for national investment in care infrastructure is clear. The support for caregivers and families is widespread and bipartisan. Now, policymakers have the opportunity to design the policies and systems and make the investments to provide people in America with the help they need to care for the people who mean the most to them in life.