Giving Compass' Take:

• The National Partnership for Women & Families details why we need new, comprehensive paid leave policy to help bridge massive gaps in racial equity.

• Where does current policy fail in offering Black women and people of color the same advantages as those with privilege? What are you doing to push for improved, more equitable paid leave policy?

• Learn more about the failure of current paid leave policy in the United States.

Structural and discriminatory barriers have disadvantaged people of color throughout our country’s history and are responsible for punishing economic, wealth and health disparities that persist today. Our failure to adopt a national paid family and medical leave program exacerbates the problems families of color face — but access to paid leave can promote racial equity in the labor force, help businesses increase their diversity and enhance the economic security of families of color and all those struggling to make ends meet. A well-designed, strong, comprehensive national paid leave plan would guarantee meaningful, widespread access to paid leave for serious family and personal medical care needs — and, over time, help promote racial equity and, ultimately, justice.

“Ensuring that paid leave programs are responsive to the needs of people of color will benefit all of us — workers, families, businesses and the country,” said Vicki Shabo, vice president for workplace policies and strategies at the National Partnership. “For Black women, who suffer much higher rates of maternal mortality than white women, and for many families of color, many of which have higher family care burdens, paid leave can be a matter of life or death as well as an economic imperative.”

The National Partnership is releasing this issue brief just one day after new national survey data, which shows that more than eight in 10 voters — including 79 percent of white voters, 88 percent of Black voters and 89 percent of Latino voters — want lawmakers to prioritize a national paid family and medical leave policy that would allow working people paid leave to care for an ill or elderly family member, a new child or their own serious health issue. What’s more, voters say they are more likely to support lawmakers who champion a strong, comprehensive national paid leave policy.

Read the full article about paid leave policy at National Partnership for Women & Families.