Business organizations across the country are calling for swift passage of the Build Back Better Act, with the inclusion of a national paid leave program: A collection of statements.
Read MoreMain Street Alliance released results of its latest pop member survey today showing critical need and support for investments in care infrastructure including paid leave and child care support as part of the recovery packages.
Read MoreOrganizations representing hundreds of thousands of small business owners signed on to a letter urging Congress to guarantee paid family and medical leave for all small businesses and their employees in the United States.
The letter, delivered to Congressional offices on Wednesday, calls on lawmakers to strengthen paid leave provisions that will allow small business owners and workers to take time off from work to care for themselves and/or their loved ones. Paid leave has already been shown to help to suppress the spread of the virus and provide stability for business owners who continue to deal with immense uncertainty. The signers noted they were encouraged by the scale and broad focus of the infrastructure programs included in the American Jobs & Families Plans the Biden administration has and will announce.
Read MoreSpeaker Pelosi, Majority Leader McConnell, Majority Leader Schumer, and Minority Leader McCarthy:
We applaud the passage of the American Rescue Plan - a program of a scale and substance needed to address many of the urgent needs facing small business owners, our employees and customers.
Paid leave is an essential component to ensuring more small businesses are able to make it back to profitability and to leveling the playing field for small businesses in the long run. We must never be unprepared for a crisis like this again.
Small business owners overwhelmingly supported national paid leave even before the pandemic and as critical COVID relief during the outbreak for numerous reasons:
Read MoreA new nationwide poll of 600 small business owners from the Paid Leave for All Campaign found that about two-thirds (64%) of small businesses owners favored the U.S. having a national policy for paid family and medical leave. Support for paid leave by small business owners is also not a partisan issue, with 80% of Democratic, 55% of Republican, and 52% of Independent owners in favor of a national policy for paid family and medical leave.
Read MoreOrganizations representing hundreds of thousands of small business owners have signed on to a letter urging Congress to guarantee paid family and medical leave for all small businesses and their employees in the United States. Several of the signatory organizations, as well as three small business owners, joined U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS) for a webinar to discuss this urgent need.
Read MoreThe Small Business for Paid Leave Coalition applauds this historic moment in providing paid leave for the first time to American workers and businesses. The passage of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act is a sorely needed urgent first step in addressing the crisis of health, pay and care exposed through this pandemic.
Read MoreThe Small Business for Paid Leave Coalition is calling on Congress to immediately pass the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (HR 6201).
From sharp decreases in consumer demand to disrupted supply chains, we are seeing dramatic impacts on small businesses due to the spread of COVID-19. This crisis shows exactly why strong public health foundations are needed, both for healthy communities, and also for a healthy economy.
Read More“I hope our elected officials will listen to the small businesses that are showing up and testifying in support of this critical program, which is urgently needed. We want to get back to the business of running our businesses – and we want lawmakers do their jobs and pass paid family and medical leave insurance,” said Sarah Piepenburg, owner of Vinaigrette in Minneapolis, MN.
Read MoreRebecca Hamilton, co-CEO of the W.S. Badger company, testified in the hearing on Tuesday.
“It helps us to retain talented workforce, helps us to find and attract talented workforce — so there's a good business reason for it as well as it being something that is good for society,” said Hamilton.
Read MoreWashington, DC - Today, January 28th, the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a congressional hearing on paid family and medical leave, including testimony from small business owner and CEO of New Hampshire's Badger Balm. The Small Business for Paid Leave Coalition supports this next step in the process for making paid leave for all a reality, and thanks congress and the committee for centering small business voices in developing these policies.
Read MoreA group of organizations representing small-business owners has launched a national campaign for federal paid family and medical leave. The coalition, announced Dec. 11, aims to create a platform for small-business owners who support a social-insurance paid family and medical leave program.
Read MoreLaunching Small Business for Paid Leave, seven organizations who support small businesses join the growing movement for a national paid family and medical leave social insurance program.
Read MoreNew research shows paid leave programs have a positive return on investment (ROI) for companies that offer the benefit. In the first known quantitative study to consider the impact of paid leave on productivity, Panorama and the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) found that companies with paid leave programs averaged increases of 4.6 percent in revenue and 6.8 percent in profit on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis.
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