Establishes the Marshall plan for moms interagency task force

• Democratic11
• Republican1

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Cordell Cleare says this is needed

Women continue to face unjust gender and racial.wage gaps, and represent a majority of low-wage jobs despite historical increase in workforce participation. Women of color are subject to an even greater pay gap than white women and stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars over their lifetimes. Yet, women's wages are key to their families' economic security and survival. Across the country, mothers are breadwinners in almost half of families with children under 18, even though mothers face a greater pay gap than women as a whole. Even prior to the pandemic, working mothers faced continued biases and stigmas in the workplace that caregiving responsibilities will negative- ly impact their work performance. Women have suffered the majority of pandemic-related job losses. Since February 2020, women have lost over 5,400,000 net jobs and account for 55% of overall net job loss since the beginning of the.crisis. Women of color are experiencing higher rates of job loss than White women. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics January 2021 unemployment data, the jobless rate for Black women and Latina women aged 20 and over is over 60% higher than their white coun- terparts. Asian Americans recorded the highest jobless rates among women in the last 6 months of 2020, even though before the pandemic their average unemployment rate was the lowest. Women, historically, have faced a disproportionate burden of caregiving responsibilities. Mothers are three times more likely than fathers to be responsible for most of the caregiving and household work. Single mothers are more likely than other parents to take care of all housework and childcare responsibil- ities in their household, and are more likely than other mothers to experience financial insecurity. Throughout the pandemic, this burden has been especially great, as parents, primarily mothers, have had to support their children through remote learning. School closures have had a disproportionate impact on women, many of whom have had to reduce their work hours, take a leave absence, or permanently leave the work- force. The unprecedented burdens of childcare, work, and remote learning have stressor are compounded by financial instability, racial injustice, being a single parent, having children with special needs, and many other factors. By failing to assign fiscal value to the care provided by parents, especially moms, our economic system devalues the caretaking function and ignores the role it plays in society. This bill creates a task force to study how to provide payments to moms and other caregiv- ers, and address the intersecting policy.areas that disproportionately impact women, including childcare, paid family leave, family supportive policies, etc.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.