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| Government Initiatives for Working Families |
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A report by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, slated for release on September 14, 2001 decries the lack of federal policies on work and family issues. Still there have been a few efforts at the federal level to help ease the work-family strain. Many states have taken the lead in implementing programs on a state-wide level. The following programs provide a measure of economic and social support: Federal Benefits for Employees and Working Families The Earned Income Tax Credit The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable Federal tax credit for eligible individuals and families who work and have earned income under $31,152. The EITC not reduces the amount of tax you owe, but it pays out tens of billions of dollars a year to low-income working families. For information, or to see if you qualify for the Earned Income
Tax Credit visit the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/ind_info/eitc4.html#Where
or call the IRS directly at The Family and Medical Leave Act The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was signed into law by President Clinton on February 5 1993, and became effective for most employers on August 5, 1993. The FMLA guarantees that people who work for companies with more than 50 employees can take up to 12 weeks' unpaid leave a year to care for a newborn or newly adopted child or for certain seriously ill family members, or to recover from their own serious health conditions, without risking the loss of their jobs. How well do you know your rights under this law? Take our interactive quiz and find out. For more information on the FMLA, check out: Get the details on new, pending legislation to amend the Family
and Medical Leave Act from the National Partnership for Women and
Families.
State Benefits for Employees and Working Families Temporary Disability Insurance & Paid Maternity Leave Mothers who have the opportunity to take advantage of paid maternity leave are less likely to suffer from wage setbacks when they return to work. Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI), the major public program designed to address the need of workers who take unpaid leave, provides partial wage replacement and guarantees access to wage protection, but is available to women in only five of the fifty states (New York, California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Hawaii) and Puerto Rico. Childcare Benefits In the early 1990s, inspired by the knowledge that children with strong preschool experiences tend to be more successful in school and have higher self-esteem, Georgia created a statewide Voluntary Prekindergarten (Pre-K) Program. The Pre-K program provides young children with learning experiences that they need in order to succeed in future educational settings. All four-year-old children are eligible to participate in the free, statewide Pre-kindergarten program. In 1998, more than 60,000 children attended the voluntary Pre-K program at one of 1,600 sites in public and private settings. In 1993, North Carolina launched Smart Start, a state-wide initiative to prepare all children to enter school healthy and ready to succeed. The funding comes from the North Carolina General Assembly with a mandate to raise one dollar from the private sector for every $10 it receives from the state. With more than sixty-five percent of mothers with children under the age of six working outside the home (now over seventy percent), there was a severe child care shortage. The state also passed legislation authorizing the creation of a public-private partnership to help oversee the project. The participants determine what their community needs most for its children from birth to age five and then using Smart Start funds, as well as other resources, develops and implements these services. For more information on state-wide initiatives to improve quality
and access to childcare check out the National Childcare Information
Centers website: Family Leave Benefits In 2001, Family Leave Benefits were expanded in the states of Minnesota, Oregon and Oklahoma, where employees are now permitted, by law to use sick leave to care for family members. Oklahoma also established a leave-sharing program by which state employees can donate their annual or sick leave to co-workers in need of family and medical leave. The National Partnership for Women & Families website provides information on states whose family leave laws are more expansive than the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act, as well as those states who have initiated, but not yet passed, such legislation: http://www.nationalpartnership.org/workandfamily/fmleave/flinsur.htm For more information programs and initiatives to help working families on the statewide level jump to our state-by-state resource map. |
