Issue Position: Real Family Values

Issue Position

When my Republican colleagues mention "family values," they're usually talking about opposition to contraception, denying a woman's right to choose, or opposition to gay rights.

Real family values strengthen the bonds of family and improve the lives of our families. When it comes to these values, our country deserves better.

We are the only major nation in the world that doesn't guarantee paid time off for new parents. Of 182 nations that do provide paid leave for this purpose, more than half guarantee at least 14 weeks off.

We are the only one of 22 wealthy nations that does not guarantee some type of paid sick leave, and the only one that does not provide paid sick leave for a worker undergoing a 50-day cancer treatment.

We are the only advanced economy, and one of only 13 nations in the entire world, that doesn't guarantee workers a paid vacation.

The truth is that we lag behind other developed countries in many of the policies that bring working families together. That's wrong. It's a travesty. And it should be an embarrassment to anyone who claims to speak for family values in this country.

KEY ACTIONS

* Cosponsored Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's FAMILY Act, which would guarantee every employee twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave. This program would be funded through an insurance program, the way Social Security is today. Workers would pay into it with every paycheck, at the price of roughly one cup of coffee per week.

* Introduced legislation requiring employers to provide at least 10 days of paid vacation per year, as is done in almost every other developed country in the world.

* Cosponsored Sen. Patty Murray's Healthy Families Act, which would guarantee seven days of paid sick leave per year for American workers.

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