Irene Strohbeen, Irene Strohbeen and Associates - Wisconsin
As an employee at a major corporation, and now a small business owner and consultant I have seen firsthand how our lack of a national paid leave program is hurting businesses of all sizes and their employees. Far too many families are suffering financial hardship due to lack of paid leave when a family member needs the worker(s) to be at home. Some workers, especially women, are leaving the workforce because the US doesn’t have a paid leave policy that supports them taking the time they need to care for their loved ones without jeopardizing their household budget. This results in businesses of all sizes spending too much for staff turnover in recruitment and training as well as lost productivity, plus less money flowing in the economy overall. This pandemic has been a wake-up call - we need to make passing a national paid leave program a priority in 2021.
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Christopher Pyant, Events to Remember LLC - Michigan
As a father and a small family business owner I know first hand how important it is to have a safety net when you or an employee needs to take time off to care for themselves or a family member. My wife had a difficult pregnancy and unforeseen complications after the birth -- and needed much more than the two weeks sick leave she had from her job to recover. She lost her job and I was back at work two days after our child was born. In this world you never really know what is going to happen. A national, comprehensive paid leave plan would be the Plan B that so many families need to when those unforeseen circumstances come up. Small businesses owners and our employees should have time to care for themselves and their loved ones -- without having to put their paycheck or job at risk.
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Lani Basa, The Business Women's Circle - Minnesota
At the Business Women’s Circle, we’ve been helping women grow their businesses and themselves through accountability, learning, and peer support. We have been in business for over 12 years and in that time I have seen the difficulty that small businesses face when it comes to supporting themselves or their employees for paid family or medical leave.
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Robin Janson, Urban Evolutions - Wisconsin
As co-founder and president of Urban Evolutions in Appleton WI, Robin Janson has dealt with the challenges of pushing the national construction industry to make planet-healthy choices for nearly 25 years. She takes that same determined approach to providing a healthy, fair and supportive workplace for her employees in a small business setting. Smaller staffs can have less flexibility when it comes to providing options for leave, both in economic terms and in providing job coverage. Despite those challenges, employees and businesses require clear, affordable, and reliable options for family leave. Robin looks forward to participating with fellow business owners in championing universal paid leave policies.
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Rita Hudson-Evalt, Union Rose PDX - Oregon
As a business owner I would love to have paid leave support built into the system, to ensure my employees have robust protection for times they need to take leave. I have not been able to provide this type of protection to them privately, and would love to have it rolled into our current payroll and tax system so ALL workers are protected and able to take leave when necessary. It's a win-win-win! for our economy, workers and small business owners. If we want to see our local communities and economies thrive we need to give people Protected Time to step out of the financial economy when they need, as they are doing the critical work in the care economy, which has gone unpaid for too long.
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Mike Hamlar, Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home - Virginia
We are in the death care business and saw early on that everyone - no matter their age, race or occupation - was at risk of dying from COVID. Being on the frontlines, our staff were exposed, infected and had to quarantine. FFCRA was absolutely critical to helping our business through this crisis. Small businesses and our employees critically need emergency leave extended and a permanent solution so we are better prepared for the next crisis, big or small.
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Aaron Seyedian, Well Paid Maids - DC, Maryland, Virginia
Our staff is down by 50% and our revenue even more so from last year. While we have made our COVID policies as strong as possible, it’s just true that front-line workers living in multi-generational households get exposed and sick more often. That made having access to paid sick leave through FFCRA all the more important for my business and staff. Small businesses urgently need our elected officials to include an expansion of emergency paid leave in the next rescue package and to begin work on a permanent solution.
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Marcia Saint Hilaire-Finn, Bright Start Early Care - Washington, DC
Having access to this paid leave meant I could continue to pay my entire staff—18 people—even though they couldn’t work because of the public health measures we took. My employees collected their checks and I could feel confident that making the right decision to protect others wouldn’t mean my employees wouldn’t miss rent or food on the table.
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Eric Sorkin, Runamok Maple - Vermont
FFCRA serves to supplement our own funds and gives us even more flexibility so that we can support our employees to make decisions that put their health and safety first. This has been critical and is essential to public health. We urge Congress to extend the program beyond December 31st, 2020 and to expand benefits to all workers. It is imperative that we meet this moment and create meaningful supports for our workers and their families so that they are able to make choices that put the health and safety of their families and co-workers first without putting their financial security at risk.
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National Organic Farmers Association - Vermont
For our valued employees at NOFA-VT, access to the FFCRA Paid Leave program has been critical to getting a steady paycheck while navigating the loss of childcare during this stressful time. For many employees, they would have been in dangerous positions without it. As employers, this program helped us to keep our trained and valued staff on payroll with less economic harm to the organization. However, we also saw the gaps that exist within the program and those whose needs were not met by the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act were put in a much more challenging position. We urge Washington to take steps to continue this program beyond December 31st, 2020 and to expand it to include a wider range of workers and families so that our workers and families have the support that they need to make the right decisions for their own health and the health of their families.
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Dan Swenson-Klatt, Butter Bakery - Minnesota
The paid leave and paid sick days programs have given us an important resource to help our employees balance their health and families while still earning income. We’ve had three employees use these paid days for child care. One of them also used some paid sick days as well. Given how tight our budget has been, I’m not sure if we would have been able to provide these resources without the public programs. They’ve given our staff some peace of mind during a trying time and they’ve given us the flexibility to manage our staffing in a way that works for our businesses and our employees. Small businesses like mine will need this continued support for the duration of the health crisis. We should strengthen these programs and make sure they don’t expire in December. Now more than ever it’s in the interest of everyone to make sure people can take the time they need away from work.
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Tiffany Turner, Adrift Hospitality - Washington, Oregon
We’ve learned quickly that to operate hotels and restaurants during this pandemic you need to be well prepared and ready to act quickly in order to reduce public safety risks. Our employees and our guests are our top priority, so we’ve gone to great lengths to take precautions and keep everyone safe. As hard as you try, you can’t prepare for every unknown. When we found out one employee of ours had tested positive, we took immediate action. We closed for sanitation and the employee took leave.
Having the paid sick days option afforded by the Families First Act meant that our employee could recuperate without losing their pay. For our business, it meant we could replace that employee during their absence without further upsetting our books. A program like this does exactly what it is supposed to do: incentivizes people to make the right decision rather than punish employers and employees for looking out for everyone’s health. We should build from this program to make it stronger and available to all.
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Kate Davenport, Eureka Recycling - Minnesota
As a recycling company in Minneapolis that has been classified as an essential business, we looked into the Family First Act’s paid leave and paid sick days programs from the beginning. For our business and for our employees, this has been a massively important tool to help keep us operating while putting our employees’ safety and public health first, as well as supporting our employees to help take care of their families. Its implementation through our payroll company has been key so that we immediately receive the tax credit.
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