Throughout the elections and into the first weeks of a new administration, we are hearing more about working women’s issues – time to care for family, equal pay, and access to affordable child care. Clearly, our hard work is paying off, now that all political parties know they must address these fundamental workplace issues.
The thing is, at 9to5, we’re not new to this discussion. We’ve been working – and winning – on issues like family leave and equal pay for more than 40 years.
And with decades of this work under our belt, we have a pretty good idea what we’re talking about.
A number of newly-proposed policies use tax credits – either for employers or for individuals – as a means of addressing workplace issues.
This approach gets our caution lights flashing, because…
- Often, tax credits benefit wealthy families, but not those of us who really need the help. Case in point: The child care tax credit plan that Ivanka Trump proposed during the presidential campaign season.
- There are some great policies that utilize tax credits to accomplish their goals, like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). However, before any policy gets 9to5’s support, it has to meet our standards.
Our standard is simple: does a solution actually benefit low-income and middle-income women and their families? If not, we’re not on board.
We’re not going to be distracted from the real solutions that  are needed to lift up all our communities – like the FAMILY Act.
The FAMILY Act would make paid family and medical leave accessible to all workers, regardless of where they work, by spreading the costs out through a national social insurance program. When we all do better, we all do better – that’s the approach we need.
