The White House Council on Women and Girls, the Department of Labor, and the Center for American Progress are hosting a Summit on Working Families today to discuss “creating a 21st century workplace that works for all Americans.” The Summit will address ways to strengthen the economic security of working families through the creation of policies that promote, among other things, equal pay, paid leave, elder care, and affordable and accessible child care.
“At a time when women make up about half of America’s workforce, outdated workplace policies that make it harder for mothers to work hold our entire economy back,” Obama said in his weekly address Saturday about the Summit. “But these aren’t just problems for women. Men also care about who’s watching their kids. They’re rearranging their schedules to make it to soccer games and school plays. Lots of sons help care for aging parents. And plenty of fathers would love to be home for their new baby’s first weeks in the world.”
Addressing the Summit, President Obama announced that he would sign a Presidential Memorandum directing federal agencies to expand flexible workplace policies to the maximum extent possible. The Memorandum will clarify that federal workers may request a flexible work schedule and that agencies must establish procedures to address such requests.
This latest executive action follows several other actions the President has taken this year to improve policies for working families, including issuing an executive order to increase the minimum wage for federal contractors, signing two executive actions on equal pay, banning discrimination against LGBT employees, and planning an expansion of sick leave for same-sex couples.
Ahead of the Summit, the White House released two reports on working families. “Nine Facts about American Families at Work” and “The Economics of Paid and Unpaid Leave” provide updated research on the modern American family and detail the widespread need for more leave, both paid and unpaid.
You can watch the Summit live at workingfamiliessummit.org and follow The Feminist Majority tweets on the event @femmajority.
Media Resources: The White House 6/21/14, 6/23/14; The White House Summit on Working Families; The White House Council of Economic Advisers 6/2014; Feminist Newswire 2/14/14, 4/7/14, 6/17/14, 6/20/14
