Washington, D.C.—(ENEWSPF)—June 23, 2014. The White House held a Summit today to address the challenges that women and families face in workplaces, the majority of which have not adapted to meet today’s needs. Rep. Jan Schakowsky issued the following statement on the Summit:
“I found the White House Summit on Working Families to be an important vehicle to focus attention and identify solutions to the problems that working families face. Many of the policies discussed at today’s Summit match the economic agenda of the Democratic Women’s Working Group, ‘When Women Succeed, America Succeeds’. In fact, when President Barack Obama said those words at the Summit the crowd stood and cheered.
The President’s Council of Economic Advisers released a report on work-life balance and the economics of workplace flexibility. The report found that increasing the minimum wage, making child care affordable, providing paid sick days, and paid family and medical leave are critical needs for working families.
Today the President announced Executive Orders that will begin to alleviate these workplace problems. He directed federal agencies to implement efforts to expand flexible workplace policies for their employees and he announced that the Department of Labor will invest $25 million in expanding access to affordable child care for individuals participating in job training programs. These are great steps forward, but we must increase our efforts to make sure working families succeed.
Panelist Liz Schuler, Secretary-Treasurer of AFL-CIO talked about the benefit of unions, particularly for moderate and low wage workers. Collective bargaining for wages, benefits and working conditions can truly make a difference in the lives of working families.
The Summit, which brought together workers, business owners, academics and policy makers, is an important first step in helping the United States catch up to many other countries in truly creating employee and family friendly workplaces. The President certainly is doing what he can to help our working families; now Congress must do its part to take this economic agenda further.”
Source: Schakowsky.house.gov
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