The messages below highlight why paid family and medical leave is essential for infants and toddlers, families, businesses, and the economy—while also offering tested calls to action for change. Use them to align your campaign, spark conversations, and push for policies that give all working families the time they need to care for their loved ones without sacrificing their jobs or financial security.
Strong, consistent messaging is key to driving support for paid family and medical leave. Don’t worry about being repetitive: Repetition is key to amplifying the narrative, making the case, and engaging a wider coalition of support. To help keep your message on track, download the message wheel, a simple visual format for organizing the messages that are key to your issue.
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Core Message
The first three years of life are a crucial period for young children and their families. Early relationships with parents and caregivers shape a child’s brain development, laying the foundation for lifelong learning, health, and well-being. Yet too many working parents and caregivers are forced to sacrifice their jobs and savings when they need time off to bond with their young children or care for themselves or a sick or injured family member. All workers—regardless of where they live or who they work for—should have access to paid family and medical leave to ensure that they can be healthy and provide the care and stability infants and toddlers need to thrive.
Supporting Messages
Most workers in the U.S. do not have access to paid family and medical leave to bond with a new child or care for themselves or a sick or injured family member.
- Less than a third of people have access to paid family and medical leave, leaving many families without financial security during a critical time for child development.
- Employees who work in production, transportation, construction, maintenance, and service sectors have some of the lowest rates of access to paid family and medical leave.
- Access to paid leave is lowest among workers who may need it most, including those with lower incomes, without college degrees, and who work part time.
- Black and Hispanic/Latino/a families report less access to paid leave than white families.
Paid family and medical leave is good for businesses and the economy.
- Women who take paid leave after the birth of a child are more likely to reenter the workforce within a year of the child’s birth, supporting long-term economic growth.
- A workforce with reduced financial and emotional stress is a stronger workforce. Paid leave benefits businesses by increasing productivity and morale, improving employee retention, and reducing turnover costs.
- Investing in paid leave is a smart fiscal decision. States with paid leave programs see fewer families relying on public assistance, lowering costs for taxpayers.
- Children are the future leaders and wealth builders of society. Investing in paid leave now means investing in healthier children, a stronger workforce, and a more resilient economy for future generations. The return on investment is substantial, both in the short and longer term.
Paid family and medical leave should be available to all workers.
- The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world that does not guarantee paid leave, leaving millions of babies without the care they need in their earliest months of life.
- State and national paid leave policies should ensure all parents and caregivers—regardless of job type, income, or location—can take time to care for their families and themselves without risking job or financial security. This includes bonding with a new child, caring for an ill family member, and addressing personal health challenges.
- As of 2025, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington have already passed paid leave laws. These laws may help improve the health of families, reduce food insecurity, allow more women to reenter the workforce, and boost business and employee retention.
- Paid leave is popular among voters, regardless of party affiliation.
Paid family and medical leave is important for the short- and long-term health of young children and adults.
- The first three years of life are a crucial period for brain development. Paid leave ensures parents and caregivers have time to form strong bonds with their babies, promoting long-term well-being. We must act now to ensure that infants and toddlers grow into socially, emotionally, and physically healthy children and adults.
- Nursing parents who have access to paid leave are more likely to breastfeed, which has been shown to improve the heart health of the parent and baby.
- Paid leave improves infant health, reducing preterm births and low birthweights, especially for Black mothers.
- Parents and caregivers with paid leave are more likely to attend well-child visits and ensure their children receive necessary immunizations, reducing infant mortality and childhood illness and leading to long-term health benefits as children age.
- Black and Hispanic/Latino/a families are disproportionately impacted by the lack of paid leave, reinforcing existing inequities in maternal and infant health.
