Index:

Updated: May 8, 2013

• In the News: More Babies Die in America on Their First Day Than Anywhere Else in Industrialized World - According to a new report, first-day mortality rates in the industrialized world are the highest in the United States.
• In the News: As Child Care Costs Rise, Families Seek Alternatives
• In the News: Child care is a business issue, big and small
• In the News: Childhood poverty on the rise - Children have been hard hit by years of lean economic times. More than 1 in 5 U.S children live in poverty today - up 37 percent in a decade.
• In the News: The State of America’s Children 2012
• In the News: How America Became a Country That Lets Little Kids Go Homeless
• In the News: Child Care Director Is Also Diaper-Changer in Chief
• Expecting Better: A State-by-State Analysis of Laws That Help New Parents
• In the News: U.S. ranked 25th best country to be a mom
• In the News: U.S. Moms Die at Higher Rate than Irish, Italian
• In the News: Infant-Formula Companies Milk U.S. Food Program
• Child Poverty Increases in Most States
• In the News: Gender Bias Uncovered in Children's Books With Male Characters, Including Male Animals, Leading the Fictional Pack

Expecting Better: A State-by-State Analysis of Laws That Help New Parents

The National Partnership for Women & Families released a newest report, Expecting Better: A State-by-State Analysis of Laws That Help New Parents. We’ve given every state a grade based on how well its policies support working parents.

New York State got a B-!

Private Sector Workers - New York has no laws beyond the federal FMLA that guarantee job-protected family leave for new or expecting parents.

• Paid Medical Leave for Pregnancy Disability - New York’s Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) program provides up to $170 per week to eligible workers who are temporarily disabled, including women with pregnancy or childbirth-related disabilities. The TDI program is funded by contributions from employers and workers. 194 Although workers are eligible for up to 26 weeks of TDI, the typical period of pregnancy-related disability is four to six weeks prior to a woman’s due date and four to six weeks after delivery.

• Nursing Mothers’ Workplace Rights - All nursing mothers are entitled to reasonable break time and a room or other location close to their work area to express breast milk at work for up to three years after childbirth.

State Workers

• Paid Medical Leave for Pregnancy disability - State workers are not covered by New York’s TDI system.

• Job-Protected Family and Medical Leave -State workers have greater access to parental leave under state law than under the federal FMLA. New York’s public sector family leave regulations apply to all workers regardless of tenure and number of hours worked and grant workers up to seven months of leave after a child is born.

  Female state workers have greater access to pregnancy disability leave under state law than under the federal FMLA. New York’s public sector pregnancy disability regulations apply to all workers regardless of tenure and number of hours worked. The typical period of pregnancy disability is four weeks prior to a woman’s due date and six weeks after her delivery date.

• Nursing Mothers’ Workplace Rights - Like private sector workers, women employed by the state are entitled to reasonable break time and a room or other location close to their work areas to express breast milk at work for up to three years after childbirth.

- from the National Partnership for Women & Families on May 8, 2012

Child Poverty Increases in Most States

An annual national survey on child well-being found that 14.7 million American children – about 20 percent – were living in poverty in 2009, an increase of 2.5 million children since 2000. Child poverty increased in 38 states from 2000 to 2009. The Kids Count survey by the Annie E. Casey Foundation also concluded that low-income children will likely suffer academically, socially, and economically long after their parents have recovered from the economic recession. More than 20 states have also seen double-digit percent growth in the number of people seeking food assistance benefits from May 2010 to May 2011.

AAUW believes it is imperative that our national economic recovery plan reflect the realities of our nation and equally assist women as well as men to rebound from the recession. AAUW has worked to prevent cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which has been crucial in meeting a vastly increased need among people who lost jobs or income during the recession.

- from AAUW's Washington Update for August 19, 2011.

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