Coming off the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, and now transitioning into Women’s History Month, a new report shows that Black women are disproportionately impacted by the absence of a national paid sick leave law. The new analysis by A Better Balance, the National Partnership for Women & Families, and The 75 Million, finds that more than six million Black women workers live in states that not only lack laws guaranteeing paid sick days statewide, but also ban, or “preempt,” local governments from passing their own paid sick days laws.
These states restrict local governments from implementing their own paid leave standards, despite 25 million Americans lacking access to paid sick leave. Black women are disproportionately impacted by these “preemption” laws because they are more likely than other groups of women to live in the South and in states that have regressive paid leave policies. The report also finds:
- More than 6.1 million Black women, or 57 percent of Black women in the labor force nationwide, live in these 18 preemption states. By comparison, overall, 43 percent of the U.S. labor force lives in these states.
- Black women account for 18 percent of the women’s labor force in these states, compared to 13 percent of the women’s labor force nationally.
- A majority of these states are in the South, disproportionately affecting Black women.
“No one should have to show up to work sick or send a sick child to school. Black women are disproportionately suffering from a lack of access to paid sick days, and are often forced to make impossible choices between their health and paycheck as a result,” said Inimai Chettiar, president of A Better Balance. “It’s undemocratic and counterintuitive when states block their cities and towns from passing their own paid sick time laws. Our workplaces can and should lay a strong foundation for gender and racial justice, and a national paid sick time law would be a lifeline for millions of Black women who are being denied these rights.”
“In many of the very cities where Black communities have built cultural and economic power — places like Atlanta and Charlotte — state lawmakers are using preemption to strip local leaders of the authority to enact paid sick leave protections,” said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families and co-lead of The 75 Million. “These actions are especially harmful for Black women, who frequently power our economy with some of the highest labor force participation rates for women in the country. Instead, they are being forced to shoulder caregiving and breadwinning responsibilities without the most basic workplace safeguards. Blocking progress on paid sick leave at the local level is a direct barrier to economic justice, public health and full democratic participation.”