It was a raucous crowd on the Supreme Court steps last Wednesday morning to support former UPS driver Peggy Young in her claim of pregnancy discrimination.  She'd been forced onto unpaid leave and lost her employer-sponsored health insurance when she'd asked her employer for light duty. Her doctor had limited her lifting to 20 pounds while she was pregnant.  UPS wouldn't agree.  So, she became a mother with no job and no insurance to help with the medical bills.  Then she sued.  The Supreme Court will have to decide just what exactly the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 provides to pregnant workers.  When they do, sometime between now and June 2015, you can bet I will let you know!

Breaking news!  Jimmy Fallon just took a THIRD day of leave after the birth of his new baby daughter!  That's the headline for a New York paper:  "U.S. employers can by their discretion offer paid paternity leave, but only 10% to 15% of U.S. employers do so - and they're mostly white-collar, progressive companies like Facebook and Yahoo, according to Brad Harrington, the executive director of Boston College's Center for Work & Family."  Paid paternity leave is a joke for the US, but it shouldn't be.  It strengthens families, promotes women's equality, and makes for engaged workers and healthy businesses too.

Okay, so the congressional paralysis is distressing.  The pay gap isn't closing, and there are STILL only 20 women in the US Senate.  But...there is some good news!  States and municipalities have passed some pro-family bills and are poised to vote on more.  Paid sick days, paid family leave, and protections for pregnant workers will be tackled by legislatures around the country in the next  year.  Take it from Bryce Covert at Think Progress: "Still, activists feel there has been a sea change on all of these issues. I think this year was the first time that we really saw changing the workplace in America becoming front and center as a core economic concern," said Lisa Guide, associate director at the Rockefeller Family Fund.  Let's hope this trend catches on in a BIG way! 

Father Knows...Everybody Needs Paid Leave

What happens if your twins are born prematurely, requiring many weeks in intensive care and constant attention?  How can you care for them and still provide for them too? 

A New Jersey Dad's Story: Why We Need Paid Leave

Can Information Gathering Lead to Pay Equity?

The pay gap is bad for workers whose earnings are unfairly lower, bad for the family who depends on those workers, and bad for the economy when the worker has less to spend.  How to promote pay equity?  San Francisco has a simple idea, according to Women's eNews.  A new bill proposes that city contractors be required to report employee compensation by race and gender.  Targeted at imposing transparency on private data without revealing personal information, proponents of the bill hope to reveal patterns of pay practices that may indicate wage discrimination is at work.  Unfair practices continue because no one knows who is making what.  Removing the veil of secrecy may be a step towards pay equity.