As 2014 nears, with all its opportunities, we wanted to take a moment to reflect back on how far we’ve come since January 2013. We hope you are as inspired as we are by the incredible movement we are building to create an Oregon where families have the time it takes to care for each other without sacrificing their economic security. Here are some highlights from our biggest year yet:
Portlanders Will Earn Paid Sick Days! On January 1, 2014, Portland’s new paid sick days law kicks into effect. Passed unanimously by the Portland City Council in March, this policy makes it possible for workers in Portland to stay home from work to care for themselves or a loved one when that routine illness strikes (as it inevitably does).
To make this a reality, we brought together a broad coalition of non-profit, union, business supporters, and elected officials to solve this community problem. You’ll find our FAQ about the new law on our web site. We also began the process in our state legislature to bring paid sick days to all Oregon workers. We believe that Oregonians and our economy work better when workers have paid sick days.
Domestic Workers’ Rights: Many people aren’t aware that domestic workers like nannies and housekeepers are not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act that applies to other workers, which means they lack the most basic protections in their workplaces. We supported a bill in our state legislature to fix this historic oversight; it passed the House but failed in the Senate. We believe it’s time to shift the way we, as a society, value the important and necessary care work provided by women — whether it is for pay or as an unpaid service provided for your own family, it has economic value and should be treated as such.
Equal Pay for Equal Work: April 19th was Equal Pay day this year, the day when women finally earned what men earned in 2012. It took women an extra 99 days to catch up, because on average Oregon women earn $0.22 less than men for equal work (a gap that is unacceptably wider for women of color). To raise awareness about pay inequity, we delivered these $0.78 dollars to all 90 of our state legislators on Equal Pay day and hosted UnHappy Hours in Eugene and Portland to mark the 50th anniversary of 
the federal Equal Pay Act, which has clearly not helped enough! The very good news is that the Oregon legislature passed a bill – with our strong support – requiring the Civil Rights Commission to prepare a report (for release in 2014) examining causes and home-grown solutions – just for Oregon. We believe that women should be paid equally for equal work.
Film Series: We hosted a film series in Portland to give people an opportunity to learn about and discuss some important issues facing our community. The four films we screened were: Miss Representation, Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price, Norma Rae, and The Sandwich Generation. We believe that grassroots engagement and culture change is an essential step toward creating a family-forward Oregon.
Guest Opinions: One key way to create the kind of culture and policy change we seek is to share our vision in the media. So we did – quite a few times this year. We were published in The Oregonian and in The Bend Bulletin on: equal pay, family leave, the need for public policies that make it more possible for fathers to care for their kids, and the extreme disconnect between parents’ work schedules and K-12 school calendars.
Membership: We launched a membership program this year to better connect with our supporters. We believe that our movement is powerful when we connect directly with Oregonians who share our vision. Have you become a member of our “family” yet? You can at: http://bit.ly/FFOMemberToday.
Mother’s Day of Action: To celebrate mothers and raise awareness about the policy changes they need, we hosted our first Mother’s Day of Action with two great partners: the local group Jobs with Justice and our national partner Caring Across Generations. The event was a great success: we heard from Rep. Sara Gelser and Sen. Elizabeth Steiner-Hayward about their work on mothers’ issues; they publicly recognized our group and spoke about the need for better public policies on the floor of their respective chambers. We then delivered custom mother’s day cards with our “Flowers Aren’t Enough” message to all 90 legislators, and our supporters made countless calls to their state legislators backing us up. We believe that mothers need strong public and workplace policies that help them to be reliable providers and responsible caregivers – not just flowers on Mother’s Day.
Newsletter: We launched a quarterly eNewsletter to keep folks up-to-date about the issues you care about and what we’re doing to solve them. We send it to our eList and post it on our web site (where you’ll find archives).
Retirement Security: We’ve long known that motherhood in America is – tragically – a leading predictor of poverty in old age. And one reason we created Family Forward Oregon was to tackle it. This year, we worked with a coalition to pass a bill in our state legislature to find ways to help Oregonians – especially women – more easily plan for a secure retirement. We’re very pleased to report that the bill passed and we are now looking forward to the study and analysis it triggered that will identify barriers and propose solutions going forward. We believe that all Oregonians – especially women (who retire poorer) – should have easily accessible tools that aren’t connected to the workplace to save for a more secure retirement.
We Won an Award! The NW Workers’ Justice Project gave us an award this year! In their words: “We are pleased to recognize the work of Andrea Paluso and Sharon Bernstein of Family Forward Oregon as Tribunes of Worker Justice (in ancient Rome, tribunes were selected by the common people to defend their interests) for their leadership in the successful campaign to guarantee paid sick leave in the City of Portland and for their strong efforts in advancing bills for paid sick leave and the rights of domestic workers before the legislature in Salem.” We believe that there are enough strong, committed people in Oregon to make our vision of a caring economy that works for all Oregonians a reality.
Workplace Flexibility: We hosted our third annual Great Ideas @ Work awards event, where we honored 13 Oregon employers for creating workplaces that make work work in today’s economy, for today’s families. We also awarded the third annual Family Forward Leadership Award to a true leader in workplace flexibility. You’ll find a list of these impressive employers on our web site. We believe that flexibility works better for today’s employers and employees alike.
We Are a Growing Voice for Change: More and more Oregonians – parents, grandparents, employers, employees, volunteers, policy-makers, activists, donors, foundations, and others – are fueling the movement toward a, well, family-forward Oregon! There is simply no other organization in Oregon leading the charge to modernize the policies that shape the way we care for our families. We are proving that together we are powerful.