Mothers' Views on the FAMILY Act
Rapid

In August 2023, Count on Mothers surveyed 309 mothers across 41 states and a broad range of political ideologies to understand parental perspectives on the FAMILY (Family and Medical Insurance Leave) Act (S.1714). Mothers shared their views based on first-hand experience with health, caregiving, and work-related leave. The aggregated findings were shared with the public and Congressional legislators to inform deliberations on policies affecting children and families. Overall, mothers across political backgrounds showed strong alignment on core paid leave protections, with some variation on specific provisions.

August 31, 2023
Related themes:
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  • Broad cross-partisan input:
    The survey reflects the perspectives of mothers from 41 states and across the political spectrum, providing a diverse national view on paid family and medical leave.
  • Strong agreement on core paid leave protections:
    Mothers across ideologies overwhelmingly agreed that employees should have access to up to 12 weeks of paid leave for health, caregiving, or military-related reasons.
  • Consensus on job protection:
    Mothers agreed that employees who have worked at the same job for more than 90 days should be able to return to their positions after paid leave without employer retaliation.
  • Support for partial wage replacement:
    Mothers across political backgrounds supported paid leave that replaces up to two-thirds of regular wages for full-time employees.
  • Broad support across employment types, with some variation:
    A majority of mothers supported providing paid leave regardless of company size, employment status, or self-employment, though support was lower among very conservative mothers compared with conservative mothers.

In August 2023, 309 mothers from 41 states and a cross-section of political ideology completed the survey and shared their views on the "FAMILY (Family and Medical Insurance Leave) Act," (S.1714). We take this aggregate data and share it with the public and Congressional legislators so they are educated while deliberating over bills that can affect children and families. Mothers share their views based on their first-hand experience with the issues the bill seeks to address.

Count on Mothers is committed to representing mothers of all political ideologies on issues. Overwhelmingly, Mothers were aligned across the political spectrum on believing: Employees should have up to 12 weeks of partial income when they take time off from work for reasons relating to health, caregiving, and/ or military deployment of a relative; Employees who have worked for more than 90 days at the same job should be able to return to their jobs after paid leave and without retaliation from employers; and Mothers believe that full-time employees should earn up to 2/3 of their regular wages on this paid leave. The majority of mothers – regardless of political ideology – agreed on the importance of providing paid leave to employees regardless of company size, full-time/part-time status, and/ or self-employment status. However, there was variation within each political ideology and particularly, a conservative split between conservative and very conservative members with conservative mothers more likely than very conservative Mothers to support this provision. Similarly, Mothers are split in their belief that lowest-paid employees should earn up to 85% of their regular wages on this paid leave.

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Methodology
Count on Mothers conducts nationwide surveys and qualitative research with U.S. mothers. Findings are analyzed and reported in aggregate to inform research publications and decision-making related to families.
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