A Better Balance

A Better Balance: The Work and Family Legal Center (ABB) was founded to address the challenges of competing work and family demands, a struggle familiar to many working women but which, for too long, has been treated as an individual problem. The United States’ economy relies on the invisible an…

A Better Balance: The Work and Family Legal Center (ABB) was founded to address the challenges of competing work and family demands, a struggle familiar to many working women but which, for too long, has been treated as an individual problem. The United States’ economy relies on the invisible and free labor of millions who provide essential care to their families, yet our public policies lag far behind the rest of the world in supporting that work. As a result, American families are experiencing a care crisis. Low-income workers are particularly hard hit in their efforts to provide care to children and other family members while earning enough to get by. And many workers are left with the impossible choice of sacrificing their economic security or sacrificing critical time needed to care for their loved ones. A Better Balance is dedicated to finding solutions to the care crisis and focuses its efforts on three primary areas: (1) expanding paid leave, (2) combating family responsibilities discrimination, and (3) increasing availability of quality flexible work.

• It comes as a shock to many Americans, who take for granted that they can stay home from work when they are sick, that over 40 million of their fellow workers don’t have a single paid sick day to care for themselves or a sick child. In fact, 38 percent of private sector U.S. employees have no p…

• It comes as a shock to many Americans, who take for granted that they can stay home from work when they are sick, that over 40 million of their fellow workers don’t have a single paid sick day to care for themselves or a sick child. In fact, 38 percent of private sector U.S. employees have no paid sick time according to government statistics. A Better Balance has been hard at work providing legal support to campaigns for paid sick days in cities and states across the country. ABB has been instrumental in getting the issue on the ballot in Denver, writing the bill that was passed by the Philadelphia city council, and in the victory for paid sick days in Seattle. ABB is also leading the fight for paid family leave in New York State. Paid family leave would make it possible for workers to stay home during critical times such as the birth of a new child or to care for a seriously ill family member. The cost to business is minimal and the benefits to society are tremendous.
• A Better Balance, in conjunction with Outten & Golden LLP, founded a free legal clinic in 2009. The clinic serves family caregivers and pregnant women by providing confidential consultations about their workplace rights. Since January 2011, our clinic has fielded over 40 calls from individuals facing problems at work due to their family responsibilities. About half of our clinic callers have encountered discrimination on the job because of their pregnancy, and many others report maternal bias in their workplace. Our partners at Outten & Golden have taken on numerous clinic cases for negotiation and we are developing a referral network of attorneys so that even more of our callers may benefit from pro bono legal representation.
• Fair pay is critical to family economic security. Unfortunately, in New York City, a female full-time worker in the for-profit sector earns only 71.5 cents for every dollar her male counterpart earns. Pay confidentiality policies, which are widespread in the private sector, bear some of the blame. According to a 2010 study, 61% of private sector employees said they are discouraged or prohibited from discussing wage and salary information. But if a woman doesn’t know how much her male colleagues earn, how can she know if she is a victim of pay discrimination? New York State Senator Liz Krueger has introduced a bill to encourage wage transparency and combat discrimination by prohibiting retaliation based on wage disclosure. A Better Balance was instrumental in getting this bill introduced.

ABB, a legal advocacy organization, was founded in New York City in 2005 by a group of lawyers working together on women’s rights, civil rights, and economic justice issues at NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. This experience taught us to appreciate that work and family conflict/imbalance wa…

ABB, a legal advocacy organization, was founded in New York City in 2005 by a group of lawyers working together on women’s rights, civil rights, and economic justice issues at NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. This experience taught us to appreciate that work and family conflict/imbalance was at the root of the economic and emotional pressures that millions of Americans experience every day. While this problem affects families and individuals in every demographic category, ABB programs and strategies reflect our awareness that its heaviest burdens tend to fall on those with the fewest resources.

A Better Balance brings to this problem the knowledge and skills its founders gained in working as advocates for women and their families. In addition to their deep grounding in civil rights law, ABB attorneys understand the nuts and bolts of public policy—how to develop and implement effective laws and guidelines. They know the strategic importance of collaboration with like-minded activists from the grassroots up, and they have direct experience building effective national coalitions around progressive issues.