Vicki Shabo

February 5 marks the 20th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the family-friendly law that allows workers to take job-protected leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted child or seriously ill family member, or to recover from a serious health problem of their own. Vicki Shabo is director of work and family programs for the National Partnership for Women and Families, a leader in the effort to expand the FMLA so it can be of use to more workers. Ms. Shabo recently talked to DCA's Elise Nakhnikian about what FMLA does and doesn't cover and the improvements she and her ally organizations--including Direct Care Alliance--are advocating for.

Even when they are covered, a lot of direct care workers can't take FMLA leave because they can't afford time off without pay.
Yes, the ability to take time off without being paid is sometimes an impenetrable barrier. We are anxiously awaiting new data about to be released by the U.S Department of Labor about usage of FMLA. We know from the last data set, which was released in 2000, that a worker's inability to afford unpaid leave was the most common reason given by people who needed leave and didn't take it. Read the rest of Vicky Shabo's Q&A.

Americans willing to pay more to preserve and improve Social Security benefits: Large majorities of Americans agree on ways to strengthen the Social Security program without cutting benefits, reported the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) last week in Strengthening Social Security: What Do Americans Want? For instance, 88% of Democrats and 74% of Republicans agreed that "it is critical to preserve Social Security even if it means increasing Social Security taxes paid by working Americans." Social Security is an important source of retirement and income support for millions of low-wage Americans and their families, including direct care workers. Public opinion on Social Security is particularly pertinent right now, as policymakers are debating next steps regarding the program. If Congress doesn't take action to address the current projected long-term funding shortfall, Social Security would only be able to pay about 75% of scheduled benefits after the year 2033.

Guiding principles announced for immigration reform: Last week, a bipartisan group of Senators came to agreement on principles to guide immigration reform. The basic goals of the agreement are creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States; increasing the immigration rate of skilled workers; implementing an employer verification program to spotlight undocumented workers; and creating a guest-worker program. President Obama has urged Congress to move forward quickly on the issue of immigration, saying he expects an immigration reform bill to be signed into law as early as June. The need for immigration reform for domestic workers--including home care workers--was addressed in a recent piece in The Nation.  Learn more about the vital role of immigrants in the direct care workforce.

Danielle Frank

I'm a home health aide for Home Instead Senior Care in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I will have been there 14 years in March. Before that, I worked in hospitals as a psychiatric aide. All told, I've been a direct care worker for 25 years. It's my calling.

My husband thought I should get a better-paying job, so I went back to college and took a business degree. I did well-I graduated at the top of the class. But computers are not for me. Health care is for me.

I've been able to stay with the work that I love because I could take long periods of time off when I needed to take care of my husband and my parents. I'm grateful that my job was waiting for me when I came back. But taking all that time off without pay has been very hard on my family's finances. Read more from Danielle Frank.

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The Direct Care Alliance is the national advocacy voice of direct care workers in long-term care. We empower workers to speak out for better wages, benefits, respect, and working conditions, so more people can commit to direct care as a career. We also convene powerful allies nationwide to build consensus for change. 

If you have comments on this issue of The Direct Care News or ideas for future issues, please contact Elise Nakhnikian at 646-823-7434, enakhnikian@directcarealliance.org.