Policy makers across the country are increasingly interested in ensuring the adequacy of paid sick days policies. In addition to concerns about workers' ability to respond to their own health needs, there is growing recognition that, with so many dual-earners and single-parent families, family members' health needs can be addressed only by workers taking time from their scheduled hours on the job.

Nearly half the private-sector workforce is vulnerable to loss of income or their job when they are sick, and only one in three has a paid sick days policy for caring for their family (Hartmann 2007, Lovell 2004).

Paid time off benefits are less common in smaller firms, but even in the smallest—those with one to nine employees—more than half provide paid sick days (56 percent), and nearly three-quarters have vacation policies (72 percent).

Testimony presented to the Joint Economic Committee At the hearing: “The Employment Situation: May 2008”

In February 2007, at the request of the Rockefeller Foundation, the consulting firm Yankelovich fielded a survey to explore Americans’ sense of economic insecurity.

This summary excerpts findings from a report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Women at Greater Risk of Economic Insecurity: A Gender Analysis of the Rockefeller Foundation's American Worker Survey.

This report puts to paper the perspectives of women gathered through a series of semi-structured one-on-one and small group interviews with thirty-eight women in New Orleans and Slidell, Louisiana as well as in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi.

Policy makers around the country, seeing the far-reaching benefits of quality pre-kindergarten (pre-k) for three, four, and five-year-olds, are committing substantial resources to expanding these programs.

This manual provides an overview of how to hold workshops on women’s values in your community.