National Women's Law Center

🚨BREAKING:🚨 Our National Women’s Law Center Supporter Shop has officially launched! Whether it’s for a friend or for your own closet, check out https://nwlcshop.org/ for the cutest merch supporting gender justice!

Today’s LGBTQI+ Equal Pay Awareness Day, and we have nothing to report. That’s because we need adequate data to fully understand just how bad the wage gap is for LGBTQI+ workers, and we don’t have it. The limited research we do have, however, shows that these workers are consistently paid far less than what they’re owed. It’s crucial to remember that the LGBTQI+ community is not a monolith. Many LGBTQI+ people—especially trans people of color—are forced out of the formal economy due to discrimination. Not only does this lack of research erase the experiences of LGBTQI+ workers across the spectrum, it also forces LGBTQI+ workers to lose out on countless opportunities to build wealth for their families, lives, and futures. Data is power. The LGBTQI+ community deserves more of it.

The Supreme Court just delivered its decision in the case attacking mifepristone — and thankfully, mifepristone will be able to stay on the market without the bogus additional restrictions being pushed by anti-abortion groups. This is a win, but it’s also a wake up call. Conservatives just tried to overrule medical and scientific recommendations in their effort to ban abortion, and there are judges in our federal courts who helped them bring this bogus case all the way to the Supreme Court. The people who want to ban abortion don’t care about democracy, they don’t care about science, and they don’t care about safety. It will take all of us to protect access to abortion, to protect our bodily autonomy and equality, and to protect our rights. And we’re not going anywhere. If you need legal advice, representation, or help paying legal expenses related to abortion care, the Abortion Defense Network may be able to help. Reach out to us at https://lnkd.in/es8fyA9K.

We are excited to share our new resource: "One Fair Wage: Women Fare Better In States With Equal Treatment For Tipped Workers." This new resource tracks tipped workers' pay and quality of life in states with “One Fair Wage” policies, where employers must pay tipped workers the full minimum wage before tips. Learn more about how #OneFairWage positively impacts earnings, reduces poverty rates, and narrows the gender wage gap, particularly benefiting women and women of color. 🔍 Key findings include: Median earnings for tipped workers are significantly higher in "One Fair Wage" states compared to states where employers can pay workers the federal tipped minimum wage level (just $2.13 per hour before tips!). The poverty rate for women tipped workers is substantially lower. Parents in tipped jobs see even greater improvements in their financial well-being. Read the fact sheet and learn more about the benefits of equal treatment for tipped workers. https://lnkd.in/egHKJZmb

🚨 A federal judge in Florida just affirmed what we already know and believe: Gender-expansive youth deserve access to the medical care that they need.

We’re hosting an event at the American Black Film Festival to examine the role of film in shaping societal attitudes toward bodily autonomy, sexual violence, reproductive freedom, and the lived experiences of Black women and femmes. We have an inspiring panel featuring Tarana Burke, Brandee Evans, Kamala Avila-Salmon, and Jamilah LeMieux. RSVP today to join us: https://lnkd.in/e__hYq6V

The best way to understand the ongoing and escalating child care crisis? Talk to educators and family members directly. That’s exactly what we did this week when NWLC organized a tour of Child and Family Network Centers (CFNC) child care program in Alexandria, Virginia for U.S. Senate HELP Committee staff members. We spent time in one of the classrooms learning about the center, joined the children on the playground, and listened to a panel of family members and early educators discuss the current state of child care. As a holistic, multilingual preschool for income-qualified families, CFNC provides a comprehensive curriculum to early learners and a family support team that provides families with wrap-around services and parent engagement workshops in parents' preferred language. Federal child care stabilization and supplemental COVID-relief funding allowed CFNC to increase salaries and provide bonuses to their educators, hire additional support staff, and implement a new curriculum focusing on emotional development. Now that supplemental federal relief is drying up, child care providers and families are being faced with tough choices. We’ll continue fighting to secure at least $16 billion in emergency funding for child care to stabilize and support child care programs like CFNC. Take action now: https://lnkd.in/e2ipku3x

Families continue to struggle with the high price of child care, while early educators continue to be paid poverty-level wages. Federal child care funding provides some support, but that funding is not sufficient. Each state sets policies (within federal guidelines) for how will use its federal child care funding to assist families and providers. Our report, “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2023,” examines key policies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia as of February 2023 and changes since February 2022. We found that while states have made progress—with support from supplemental federal child care pandemic relief funding—remaining gaps in child care assistance policies deprive too many families of access to help in affording child care and leave too many child care providers without sufficient resources. States could fall back even further as the remainder of pandemic relief child care funding runs out. Substantial, sustained new investments in child care are essential to achieve further progress and address continuing gaps in child care assistance policies. https://lnkd.in/em6A7g3w

El 13 de mayo, Merline Gallegos, proveedor de cuidado infantil y miembra de la Iniciativa de Narración Sparking Change de NWLC, organizó un evento del Día sin cuidado infantil en Nuevo México para llamar la atención sobre la crisis del cuidado infantil. Con un mensaje poderoso, Merline enfatizó la importancia de reconocer y valorar el increíble trabajo que los proveedores y educadores de cuidado infantil realizan todos los días. Como ella lo expresó tan elocuentemente: “Cuidemos de nuestros cuidadores nombre mi evento, agradeciendo y valorando el gran trabajo que realizamos dia a dia, preparando a nuestras futuras generaciones, apoyando la crianzanza positiva y amorosa de nuestras familias.” --- On last month’s Day Without Child Care, Merline Gallegos, a child care provider and a member of our Sparking Change Storytelling Initiative, closed her home-based child care program to organize an event in New Mexico, drawing attention to the child care crisis. She emphasized the importance of recognizing and valuing the incredible work that child care providers and educators do every single day. She put it best: “I named my event ‘taking care of our caretakers’ in order to thank and value the incredible work that we do day after day, preparing the future generations, and supporting the positive and loving development of our families.” Read more about this event here: https://lnkd.in/eAnQsevv

Headed to the American Black Film Festival? Come to our event at SLS Hotel South Beach as we explore the transformative power of film and media in shaping cultural narratives and advancing gender and racial justice. RSVP today: https://lnkd.in/gxYejgjk