New Legislation Supports Moms in the Workplace

A colleague of mine recently commented on how awkward it was to explain to her male boss why she can’t adjust the time she’s blocked on her calendar to pump. She couldn’t help but think her need to complete a basic physiological function was indirectly creating a negative perception of her performance.

This is one of many situations moms face in the workplace today, and new legislation like the PUMP Act and Pregnant Workers Fairness Acts (PWFA) bring much-needed new levels of support. Not since FMLA went into effect in 1993 – yes, you read that right – have we seen this type of groundbreaking protections for families, and especially for moms, in the workplace.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, effective June 27th, creates protections for pregnant, postpartum, and pumping mothers. The act gives the right to workplace accommodations that allow moms to keep their jobs and, most importantly, protect their health.

Earlier this year, The PUMP Act, which guarantees workplace protections for nursing parents, went into full effect on April 28. Under the PUMP Act, employers must allow reasonable time and space for nursing moms to pump for a full year following the birth of a child. Notably, the act enables workers to sue employers who violate this law.

The legislation is far-reaching and much needed: more than 73% of mothers with children under the age of 18 were part of the labor force in 2022, and the U.S. has now reached its highest percentage of women in the workforce — 77.6% of women ages 25 to 54. Under these acts, an estimated additional 9 million moms will receive benefits and protections.

While I am optimistic these new laws can help pave the way to building better workplaces for women who are building careers alongside families, waiting another 30 years for the next set of comprehensive federal provisions is really not an option. We need to do better.

Here are more legislative actions we should take immediately that would finally raise the bar for working families:

Address the child care crisis with federal programs, resources and support

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. has lost over 100,000 child care workers over the past three years — about 10 percent of the pre-pandemic workforce. This mounting child care crisis continues to hurt working families and costs the American economy almost $122 billion each year. Rising childcare costs are driving parents out of the workforce, with the average cost of child care hitting $10,600 in 2021. In fact, a recent report found that 13% of parents with young children had to quit, change, or turn down a job because of child care concerns, and women are five to eight times more likely than men to experience employment consequences due to caregiving.

Even more concerning? The $24 billion funding dispersed due to the pandemic, the largest of its kind for the child care industry, expires in September, risking major disruptions in child care for almost three million children in the U.S.

In May, Congress announced the formation of two bipartisan caucuses designed to tackle the child care crisis. The Congressional Bipartisan Affordable Childcare Caucus is set to address the issues of skyrocketing child care costs and find ways to make child care more affordable for families. In the same week, Congress also relaunched the Congressional Pre-K and Child Care Caucus alongside the First Five Years Fund.

We working parents and our allies need to urge our congressmen and women to join these important caucuses to put forth a bipartisan effort together quickly.

Join the rest of the world and establish federal paid family leave

The U.S. is 1 of just 6 countries in the world without a guaranteed federal paid leave policy in 2023. States are taking this issue into their own hands: 11 states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington, are joined by the District of Columbia in offering paid family and medical leave. Three additional states, Illinois, Nevada and Maine, provide paid leave for any reason. Paid leave shouldn’t be dictated by the state you live in.

This all-important leave time enables parents to bond with their newborns or adopted children, improves health outcomes for new moms, and stabilizes families’ finances.

Working families know, however, that the need for paid time off isn’t limited to caring for newborns. Caregivers of people of all ages — including children, the elderly, and the ill and injured — need protected time to care for themselves and their loved ones without added financial and emotional stress.

We need a federal paid family leave policy that extends these protections to every working family in every state – full stop.

No time like the present

We are far from a victory lap for working families. While I hope these new laws prove to be a catalyst for a new age of legislation that will help working parents — and especially moms — who are raising the next generation, we also need to change the mindset that supporting working parents is a one-way benefit. In truth, when we support working parents, we support the backbone of our economy and our aspirations for the future. It is a collective responsibility we all must solve together.

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