Paid family and medical leave is soon headed to the House floor and one step closer to becoming law. If passed, it would be a win for New Mexicans, who right now must choose between their families and their paychecks in their most trying times. But we’re up against powerful forces of opposition who want you to believe a critical protection that most of the world’s workers already enjoy is somehow bad for our communities.
The opposite is true.
The United States is one of only six countries to not offer any kind of national paid leave. Thirteen other states and Washington, D.C., have passed paid family and medical leave policies and have seen benefits to maternal and infant health, worker productivity and morale, and to their economies. Paid family and medical leave is not a pie-in-the-sky idea. We know from the states that have implemented programs that the outcomes are healthier workers, families, and communities.
While certain business interests argue that the very small contributions for leave are too expensive, we already know that the costs of not providing paid leave are far too high. Those include a significantly reduced labor force, increased infant mortality rates, poorer health outcomes for our families, and babies spending most of their days without their parents weeks into their young lives.
Over the past few years that our coalition of over 100 organizations and small businesses have worked to pass paid family and medical leave, we’ve heard from dozens of New Mexicans who have been forced to continue working during their most difficult times because they didn’t have access to paid leave. This includes new moms who went back to work in just two weeks before they were fully healed from childbirth, people who worked while their parents were in hospice in their final moments of life, and spouses who worked while their partners went through cancer treatment alone.
We’ve also heard from countless others — primarily women — who had to leave their jobs and forgo a paycheck to take care of their families.
Businesses opposed to paid family and medical leave often say they can work out leave time and other employee needs with their employees directly. But it’s important to remember that the employee rights we now take for granted were hard fought. Without labor rights movements pushing for critical protections, we wouldn’t have the five-day workweek, minimum wage, overtime pay, requirements that companies provide safe working conditions, and protections against discrimination and child labor.
We must enshrine paid family and medical leave in the law to ensure New Mexico workers and families can truly thrive. They deserve better than having to make the impossible choice between a paycheck and their health or the health of their families.
I urge every New Mexican who shares in the mission to make our state a better place to live, raise families, and care for the people we love, to contact your lawmakers and tell them to pass paid family and medical leave this year.
By Tracy McDaniel, Policy Director at the Southwest Women’s Law Center
Published Feb 24, 2025
Santa Fe New Mexican