In February 2024, Count on Mothers examined mothers' views on the House Bipartisan Paid Leave Working Group's federal Paid Family Leave Framework. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of mothers across regions and the political spectrum, the survey captured firsthand perspectives on each pillar of the framework: a federal pilot program, state program standardization, small business pooling plans, expanded paid leave tax credits, and a national paid leave guarantee. Mothers showed strong cross-partisan support for every provision in the framework — with majority agreement across every ideological group on all five components.

Related themes:

Where mothers agree across political lines

• 86% of mothers support states standardizing their paid leave programs to eliminate inconsistencies for employers and employees, with 53% strongly agreeing.
• 82% of mothers support a national paid leave guarantee that covers all working people, with 57% strongly agreeing — the highest "strongly agree" rate across the five findings.
• 82% of mothers support expanding and making permanent existing paid leave tax credits for small businesses and working families.
• 82% of mothers support small business pooling plans to reduce risk and lower the cost of providing paid family leave.
• 81% of mothers support a federal pilot program exploring a public-private partnership for paid family leave with voluntary state participation, with 48% strongly agreeing.
• Cross-partisan agreement on every provision. Even among very conservative mothers — the most variable ideological group in the study — majority support held for all five components, ranging from 63% to 77%. The narrowest ideological spread (8 percentage points) was on the federal pilot program; the widest (30 points) was on tax credits.

Source: Count on Mothers, Mothers' Views on the House Bipartisan Paid Leave Working Group Framework, February 2024. Nationally representative survey of U.S. mothers, n=722, weighted across political ideology and region (sample aligned to U.S. Gallup political-ideology breakdown among women). Findings provided to the House Bipartisan Paid Leave Working Group at the Working Group's request to inform legislative deliberations. Research led by a PhD-credentialed researcher and an MPH data scientist.

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