We’ll All Need Time to Give or Receive Care—This Is Our Once-in-a-Generation Chance to Win It

Aug. 13, Phoenix, AZ—On Friday the Paid Leave for All national bus tour ended—14 stops in 10 states in just two weeks. But our fight is still going, and our movement is still growing. And we are stronger than ever.

We heard from people from all walks of life: small business owners, faith leaders, doctors, labor leaders, local officials, families, advocates, and members of Congress, all sending a powerful message to Washington that care can’t wait and the time to pass paid leave is now. What will stay with me long after our tour are their stories. Ruth Martin whose family in West Virginia didn’t have paid leave when their mother was dying of cancer. Chrischa Ives in Virginia who fights for the paid leave she did not have when she needed it, on behalf of her late daughter. Alejandro Flores in Colorado, who joyfully announced the opening of another small business and now can give paid leave to his workers. Parents, sons, daughters, stories of triumph and loss and heartbreak and joy.

Every one of us will need to give or receive care. Every one of us will have a story.

The image on the back of our bus is a collage, a mosaic of caregiving, of families of all kinds. It’s an image we use often because we want every person to understand and relate to paid leave—to be able to see their own family in it, their own moments of heartbreak and of joy. No one should have to give up those moments, choose between their family and work, their life and their livelihood. And now every story, every friend, every advocate we’ve brought into this movement is a part of this campaign, of that great collage of life we all can see ourselves in.

But paid leave is about even more than those moments. It is also an issue with wide-reaching ripple effects, for equal pay, for racial and gender equity, for economic growth, for political parity, for public health, for our shared prosperity and well-being. I believe that protecting care and allowing families more balance between that and our work will create a tidal wave across this country and change our course to a happier, healthier, and stronger nation.

And we have so many people to thank for how far we’ve come and will go. The work goes back decades, to every corner of this country. From the groups on our executive board who hatched the idea of a campaign years ago in a living room, created covenants, and have helped lead ever since; to my mighty operations team that helped us launch a war room in a pandemic while all caregiving full-time; to the advisors who work tirelessly to guide us; to the dedicated staff; and to the many partners who have joined our steering committee and campaign and helped us grow. Paid Leave for All is a labor of love and justice. It is powered by work and love in communities all over. I have loved seeing that come to life on this tour. And this job has been the honor of my life.

Paid leave is an idea whose time has finally come. As I say on every bus tour stop:

We are all here because we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity right now. We have an opportunity to finally catch up with the rest of the world; to do something meaningful to help every working family still grappling with crisis; an opportunity to Build Back Better, and to make history together by finally passing paid leave for all in the United States.

Right now, we are one of the only countries in the world that doesn’t guarantee any form of paid leave for its workers. Four in five workers have no access to paid family leave through their jobs. One in four women goes back to work within just two weeks of giving birth. Across this country, people die alone because their families can’t be with them. And none of this has to be this way. This was a crisis long before COVID, but the pandemic magnified just how important paid leave is—to keep us in our jobs, to make sure that none of us has to choose between our family and a paycheck, our health, and our work. We know paid leave and other care policies would yield millions of jobs, billions in wages, and trillions in GDP. Paid leave would be a profound solution to the problems we face and the experience of the last year we have shared. And we know the time is now.

So stay onboard with us. Follow us at PaidLeaveForAll.org and on social media platforms, keep taking action and reaching out to your members of Congress, keep sharing your own stories with us, and keep fighting. Because of you, this is the year that we pass paid leave in America.

Visit PaidLeaveforAll.org and follow Paid Leave for All on Instagram and Twitter for more information on the bus tour and on ways to get involved in winning paid family and medical leave for all.

The views and opinions expressed by the authors of this series are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New America.

Dawn Huckelbridge is the Director of Paid Leave for All.