Letter to Congress in Support of Robust Paid Leave
As the coronavirus pandemic ravages the country’s small businesses and places working families in grave danger, we urge you to guarantee paid family and medical leave for all small businesses and their employees in the United States. Such action would include both strengthening the paid leave measures created in response to the pandemic, as provided in the HEROES Act, and passing legislation such as the FAMILY Act to create a robust permanent program.
This deadly pandemic has underscored the inextricable connection between health, small business viability, and a strong economy. A top concern for the country’s small business owners is the health and safety of their employees and customers in the face of a disease that has killed more than 170,000 in the U.S. The country’s more than 30 million small businesses employ almost half of the country’s private sector workforce. Amid the health crisis and plummeting consumer spending, these businesses face unprecedented threats to their survival, endangering jobs for millions of workers. In the face of these challenges, small business owners are doing everything within their means to stay afloat while operating as safely as possible while the country endures the pandemic.
These small businesses deserve a sustainable paid leave foundation that supports their efforts to maintain safe workplaces and public spaces and contributes to a pandemic resilient economy. Now more than ever, small businesses and their employees need a program that allows owners and workers to take time from work to care for themselves and/or their loved ones, including time for quarantine and isolation. Paid leave will allow workers and business owners to take action necessary to protect themselves and others, contributing to efforts to suppress the disease. It also will provide a much-needed element of stability for business owners who are now dealing with immense uncertainty. Anything less than a sustainable paid leave foundation will spur further spread of the disease and imperil millions.
Such a foundation is necessary not only in times of widespread crisis but also for personal and family emergencies and typical life events. Even before the pandemic, the lack of a paid leave program disadvantaged small businesses relative to big business and harmed small business employees. Establishing a level playing field has become more urgent than ever. Moreover, paid leave is widely popular, with 84 percent of the public and 70 percent of small businesses supporting a national paid family and medical leave program.
For the above reasons, we urge you to pass measures included in the HEROES Act covering more businesses and employees and ending harmful exemptions; making paid leave simpler to use and more available for a broader range of reasons; and extending the program and its funding for the duration of the pandemic. Additionally, we urge you to pass legislation, such as the FAMILY Act, to create a permanent national paid leave social insurance program that will be there for small businesses and working families whenever they need it.
Finally, we urge you to reject misguided approaches, such as the Advancing Support for Working Families Act (S.2976), that fail to provide the comprehensive medical and caregiving coverage that small employers and their employees need, or that would cut programs like the child tax credit that many employees rely on. Parental only proposals and proposals that only cover the birth or adoption of a child do not meet the needs of the diverse workforce employed at America’s small businesses. As evidenced by the over 1,400 small businesses calling for a sustainable paid leave foundation along the lines of the FAMILY Act, small businesses need not shoe-string measures but a comprehensive, sustainable, and affordable paid leave foundation.
Thank you very much considering the needs of the country’s small businesses. Paid leave is crucial for the survival and resilience of the country’s small businesses and our economy overall. We must never be unprepared for a crisis like this again.
Sincerely,
Main Street Alliance
American Sustainable Business Coalition
National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC)
Small Business Majority
FamilyValues@Work
Mom’s Rising
National Partnership for Women & Families
Paid Leave for All