Paid Leave Will Help Close the Gender Wage Gap

The gender wage gap is even larger when measured over the long term because women are often pushed to spend time out of the workforce, in part due to caregiving: Over a 15-year period, women are paid just 49 cents for each dollar paid to a man.2 The lifetime effects of this lost income are stark. [...] In the year following a birth, new mothers who take paid leave are more likely than those who take no paid leave to stay in the workforce and are 54 percent more likely to report wage increases.6 By enacting a national paid leave program along with affordable child care, the United States could add an estimated 5 million working people to its labor force.7 Paid family and medical leave helps e. [...] Families lose an estimated $22.5 billion in wages each year due to inadequate or no paid leave.10 A woman who is 50 years or older who leaves the workforce early to care for an aging parent will lose more than $324,000 in wages and retirement.11 Paid family and medical leave is an essential step toward finally closing the gender wage gap in the United States – but the details matter. [...] Tables B20017C and B20017H: Median Earnings in the Past 12 Months (in 2019 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars) by Sex by Work Experience in the Past 12 Months for the Population 16 Years and Over with Earnings in the Past 12 Months. [...] Retrieved 22 March 2021, from National Alliance for Caregiving website: The National Partnership for Women & Families is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group dedicated to promoting fairness in the workplace, reproductive health and rights, access to quality, affordable health care and policies that.