Category: News
What Happened in Salem? Our 2013 Legislative Update
Oregon’s 2013 state legislative session recently ended after a busy five months. We focused on four issues during the session that fit our vision of a family-forward Oregon: Paid sick days, Equal pay for Equal work, Retirement security, and Domestic workers’ rights.
We know you want progress in these areas (and others!) as much as we do, so we are writing today with a legislative progress report. We accomplished a lot with our elected and non-profit partners in Oregon’s 2013 legislative session: two of our priority bills passed (pay equity and retirement security studies), and two made significant headway in what is typically a multi-year process.
Poverty in Oregon’s Working Families
People have a lot of ideas about who is poor and why — some accurate, some inaccurate. We prefer the facts, and believe that the more people know them the more people will support the smart policies that we advocate for today’s families to be economically secure while raising a family. When it comes to […]
“Right to Request” Law Passes in Maine
There are many ways we can improve the policies in our country to make work work for families. One is the “right to request,” which enables workers to request flexible work schedules and get an official answer why not if denied. Importantly, these laws prevent employer retaliation for workers who make a request. The state of Vermont just passed the first state law of this kind in the U.S. Not surprisingly workers in several other countries have long enjoyed this right.
Oregon House Passes Retirement Security Bill!
The Oregon House of Representatives today passed HB 3436B in a 33-25 vote. The bill, chief sponsored by Representative Jules Bailey of Portland and Senator Lee Beyer of Eugene—and supported by Governor John Kitzhaber and Treasurer Ted Wheeler creates a task force to study and recommend a solution that will enable all working Oregonians to […]
Pregnancy & Parenting in the American Workplace: Your Questions Answered
A terrific new book is out from the impressive folks at A Better Balance in New York. It’s called Babygate: What You Really Need to Know about Pregnancy and Parenting in the Workplace and it does two things we think are important to be done together: helps new and expecting parents navigate their own workplaces for the best personal and family outcomes possible and explains why meeting the competing demands of work an family in the U.S. is so much harder than in other countries. It also shows us what’s possible and hopefully inspires readers to jump in and help modernize our outdated work-family policies.
AARP Says: Modernize Workplace Leave Policies
A new report from AARP argues for improving family leave for working caregivers, citing the growing population of older Americans, increasing numbers of family caregivers on the job, and escalating demands and stress on caregivers. Keeping Up with the Times: Supporting Family Caregivers with Workplace Leave Policies points to three policy solutions to ease the burden on both caregivers and employers: unpaid family and medical leave, paid family and medical leave insurance, and earned sick time.
Modern Dads Need Modern Policies
The Pew Research Center recently published a report called ”Modern Parenthood” about the changing roles of moms and dads and how both now struggle to meet the often competing demands of work and family. What they found won’t startle many parents in the trenches today: the roles of moms and dads are converging, especially in dual-income families<b>. </b>Moms are doing more paid work outside the home, dads are doing more unpaid care work inside the home, and both now report work-family conflict in nearly equal numbers (56% of mothers and 50% of fathers) – a real shift from decades past when working mothers bore the brunt of juggling work and family.
Our family leave conversation: Urgent & incomplete
There is a growing conversation in Oregon and across our country about family leave — because the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 is insufficient in two key ways: it’s unpaid and doesn’t cover all workers. Family Forward Oregon’s Executive Director Andrea Paluso wrote this guest opinion piece to raise awareness about the failings of what we (don’t) have now, and to make sure that anyone thinking about a pathway forward on family leave is working toward a paid program.
Who CAN afford unpaid leave?
A recent report from the Center for American Progress about the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) — released on the law’s 20th anniversary in February, 2013 — is a must read because it reminds us that when this law was passed in 1993 it was just a first step towards what was needed then — and now: paid family leave for every working American. Not unpaid leave available to — but not financially possible for — just 60% of working Americans.
Good News: Equal Pay Bill Passes!
Today the Oregon House of Representatives voted 59-0 to pass Senate Bill 744, which requires the state Council on Civil Rights appointed by Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) to study wage inequality in Oregon and report findings to the Legislative Assembly. This report will provide a clear understanding of the barriers to wage equality in our state and include concrete, state-specific recommendations for improvements.
How to Make the U.S. a Better Place for Caregivers
In 2012, Anne Marie Slaughter write an article in The Atlantic (Why Women Still Can’t Have It All) that exploded on and off the internet, igniting a national dialog about the state of women in the United States, specifically around women and work and family and changes that are needed to make work work for […]