--- title: Melinda French Gates Makes the Case for National Paid Leave description: Melinda French Gates writes that at some point almost everyone who works will need time away from their job to take care of themselves or someone they love, and that's why Congress should finally pass paid family and medical leave. canonical: https://time.com/6098412/melinda-french-gates-paid-leave/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-09-20T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:53.649Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Melinda French Gates: It's Time for Paid Leave for All Workers og:description: "It’s time to catch up to the fact that our economy is powered by people with caregiving responsibilities" og:url: https://time.com/6098412/melinda-french-gates-paid-leave/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b86160b285fa637/698a1cf3096a947f6f6abaa4/paid-family-leave-melinda-gates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: paid-family-leave-melinda-gates og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Melinda French Gates: It's Time for Paid Leave for All Workers twitter:description: "It’s time to catch up to the fact that our economy is powered by people with caregiving responsibilities" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b86160b285fa637/698a1cf3096a947f6f6abaa4/paid-family-leave-melinda-gates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Melinda French Gates: Our Economy Is Powered by Caregivers. That’s Why It’s Time for National Paid Leave > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=0768cbbb-fced-4b73-9220-0e2dd00fa21a&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Sam Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Globally minded knowledge seekers. Readers who turn to journalism to understand the world, with meaningful concentrations among educators, students, media professionals, civic institutions and knowledge workers. ### TIME Inside TIME: key statements * Inside TIME is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * Inside TIME is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=0768cbbb-fced-4b73-9220-0e2dd00fa21a&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/subscribe?i=0768cbbb-fced-4b73-9220-0e2dd00fa21a&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is Inside TIME? Inside TIME is a twice-weekly newsletter written by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs. It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=0768cbbb-fced-4b73-9220-0e2dd00fa21a&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Ai-jen Poo: Caring for the Caregivers [Watch (HLS stream): Ai-jen Poo: Caring for the Caregivers](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Y91ff0rt.m3u8) (6:35)  _Published 2012-04-18. Ai-jen Poo leads a nationwide movement of nannies, housekeepers and care workers to gain long overdue workers' rights_ by [Melinda French Gates](https://time.com/author/melinda-gates/) ## Melinda French Gates Sep 20, 2021 11:00 AM UTC  The United States is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t guarantee paid leave of any kind, yet seventy-five percent of U.S. voters support a national paid family and medical leave policy The United States is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t guarantee paid leave of any kind, yet seventy-five percent of U.S. voters support a national paid family and medical leave policy Getty Images by [Melinda French Gates](https://time.com/author/melinda-gates/) ## Melinda French Gates Sep 20, 2021 11:00 AM UTC “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” a member of Congress told me earlier this summer. We were talking about the chance to pass a desperately needed, long overdue national paid family and medical leave law. After decades of groundwork by advocates and activists, this must be the year that the United States finally moves to guarantee paid leave for all workers. It’s difficult in these divided times to find issues that Americans overwhelmingly agree on, but paid leave is one of them. Seventy-five percent of U.S. voters across party lines [support a national paid family and medical leave policy](https://www.filesforprogress.org/datasets/2021/4/dfp-iia-care-economy-toplines.pdf), according to a survey conducted by Invest in America and Data for Progress. That includes 64% of Republicans and 91% of Democrats. In another survey, by the Global Strategy Group, 69% of likely voters across seven battleground states told pollsters they’d even be [willing to pay more in taxes](https://globalstrategygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/PLFA-BG-Press-Memo-F06.01.21.pdf) in exchange for the protection of a national law. **_Read More:_**[_These Moms Wanted to Care for Their Kids and Keep Their Jobs. Now They’re Suing After Being Fired_](https://time.com/5942117/mothers-fired-lawsuit-covid-19/) Why has paid leave generated such broad support? Probably because it solves a problem that is as universal as it gets. At some point in our lives, almost everyone who works will need time away from their job [to take care of themselves or someone they love](https://www.newamerica.org/better-life-lab/reports/lifting-barriers-paid-family-and-medical-leave-men-united-states/six-in-10-americans-anticipate-needing-to-take-leave-from-work-in-the-future/). A new baby, an aging parent, a sick family member, a startling diagnosis: these are constants of life. Workers want to know that when the inevitable happens, they’ll be able to stay connected to their jobs and maintain some financial security. At the same time, employers want to support their employees while [attracting top talent](https://hbr.org/2021/01/how-small-companies-can-offer-great-paid-leave-programs), [reducing turnover](https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/B334-Paid-Parental-Leave-in-the-United-States.pdf) and [boosting productivity](https://www.smallbusinessforpaidleave.org/small-business-case)—which is harder in a country that doesn’t help employers provide paid leave. Unless Congress acts, the United States will maintain the dubious distinction of being the only industrialized nation that doesn’t guarantee paid leave of any kind. As a result, only about [one in five private-sector employees](https://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/benefits/2020/employee-benefits-in-the-united-states-march-2020.pdf#page=299) has access to any paid family leave through their employer. For the lowest-wage workers—the people who can least afford unpaid time away from work—that number is one in twenty. Instead of making it possible for U.S. workers to be active parts of their families and the economy at the same time, our country has long operated on the wildly outdated assumption that we all have stay-at-home partners to handle the caregiving. This may be because so many of the people who set policy in this country are in precisely that position. A telling example: in 2019, [Congressman Colin Allred](https://19thnews.org/2021/08/men-buy-in-to-paid-leave/) became the first member of Congress to publicly take paternity leave _in the institution’s 232-year history_. Now that [most mothers work outside the home](https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2019/05/10/469739/breadwinning-mothers-continue-u-s-norm/#:~:text=In%20most%20families%20with%20children,unmarried%20mothers%20%2873.2%20percent%29.)—and [only about one in four parents has a partner who doesn’t](https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/demo/families/cps-2020.html)—it’s time to catch up to the fact that our economy is powered by people with caregiving responsibilities. **_Read More:_**[_Don’t Tell a Caregiver to Stay Positive. Here’s How to Help Instead_](https://time.com/5944624/how-to-help-a-caregiver/) Until then, millions of people every year will continue to face impossible choices between protecting their livelihoods and taking care of themselves and their loved ones. And since women [bear the lion’s share of those caregiving responsibilities](https://www.bls.gov/tus/a1-2019.pdf), it’s their careers that tend to suffer first and worst. Even before the pandemic made everything that’s hard about caregiving harder, one of the most frequent reasons women cited for leaving the workforce was [“family responsibilities.”](https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat35.pdf) This year, as COVID-19 wreaked havoc on [schools](https://time.com/6087815/covid-delta-schools-reopening/), [daycares](https://time.com/5886491/covid-childcare-daycare/) and [nursing homes](https://time.com/5887699/nursing-homes-covid-19-federal-help/), women’s workforce participation [hit a 33-year low](https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/January-Jobs-Day-FS.pdf). The consequences of forcing our daughters (and sons) into a workplace designed for our dads are staggeringly expensive—and stalling our economic recovery. Before the pandemic began, the lack of paid leave cost American families an estimated total of [$22.5 billion in lost wages](https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2020/01/21/479555/rising-cost-inaction-work-family-policies/) every year. And today, in a moment when employers are [scrambling to fill open jobs](https://time.com/6082457/hourly-workers-demand-pay-benefits/), 37% of unemployed workers say [access to paid family leave](https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/morning-consult-poll-value-of-paid-family-leave/) would make them more likely to return to work sooner. **_Read More:_**[_After a Terrible Year for Women in the Economy, These Places Are Working Toward a Feminist Recovery From COVID-19_](https://time.com/5954727/economic-recovery-women-covid-19/) A national paid leave law would also help [level the playing field for small businesses](https://www.smallbusinessforpaidleave.org/small-business-case). Until they get the support they need, these businesses will keep losing talent to larger companies with deeper pockets while also struggling to absorb the cost of replacing employees forced out of the workforce by caregiving needs. [Molly Moon Neitzel](https://waysandmeans.house.gov/sites/democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/files/documents/Molly%20Moon%20Neitzel%20Testimony.pdf), who owns an ice cream company near my home in Seattle, testified before Congress this spring about how hard she’s worked to keep valued employees as they struggled with challenges like [remote schooling](https://time.com/5918769/coronavirus-schools-learning-loss/) and daycare closures. Neitzel spoke for many business owners in her position when she insisted, “With the ongoing pandemic and Main Street still on the path to recovery, paid leave is not an ‘extra.’ It’s an essential must-have.” What the second year of the pandemic brings for businesses like Neitzel’s is hard to predict. But here’s what we know for sure: Babies will be born, aging parents will fall, children and spouses will get sick, and some of us will find ourselves recovering at home from an illness or injury. The question is not whether U.S. workers will need time away from work—it’s whether this is the year Congress will ensure that paid leave is available when they do. [](#%5Fednref1) ## Transcript [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] Domestic workers are the most visible , invisible work force. Each and everyone one of us is connected to somebody , who worked as a domestic worker, or who does today do care work. [ FOREIGN ] Domestic workers are excluded from almost every major labor law, with the exception of minimum wage protections. So simply, educating employers and workers that they have the right to minimum wage, was not address the many , many kinds of vulnerabilities that domestic workers were facing on the job. [ MUSIC ] My name is Ai- jen Poo, and I'm the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. And, we are an alliance of 35 local organizations of nannies, housekeepers, and caregivers for the elderly, in 19 cities and 11 states around the country. Ever since, I was little, I was really influenced by my mother and my grandmother. Both of whom are very strong women. Who, really valued all kinds of work, including the work that it takes to raise families. But, that work wasn't valued by other people, and so my mother always struggled. And, I realize that, so much of the unfinished business of the women's movement is really about bringing respect and dignity to this work. My name is Barbara Young, and I'm , uh, national organizer. [ CROSSTALK ] Before, joining the organization, I didn't even know, I had a voice, you know, to represent myself, furthermore to represent domestic workers in this country. Most of the people that doing the care work today are immigrant women of color. This is one of the things that I think that.. People, look down upon. [ MUSIC ] One of the first cases that I worked on , was somebody who was unpaid literally for 15 years, and was told that her salary, her wages, were being sent back home to her home country. I've heard stories, multiple stories, of women who were sexually harassed. Physical assault. [ MUSIC ] And then, there are the everyday cases. We, we see domestic workers everywhere and do outreach , and talk to them and ask them about their experiences and their stories. But a lot , also happened through word of mouth. So once, the word got out, that there were these meetings and these classes and these opportunities for women to come together, [ SOUND ] it started catching. [ SOUND ] I was, so much into the work of organizing. I would walk with a whole, handful of newsletters everyday to my job. [ MUSIC ] We organized a convention. And, over 200 workers came together. Speaking seven different languages. We had simultaneous interpretation in seven languages. And they came up with a list , of what it would actually mean to have , dignity and respect on the job. And it's from that list, that we developed legislation, that we then took to Albany, and eventually, seven years later, became the domestic workers bill of rights, became law. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ CROSSTALK ] Hello, you made it. [ CROSSTALK ] The domestic worker speakout was really exciting. It was the , coming together of 100s of people in southern California, to speak out for the domestic workers bill of rights. [ NOISE ] And now, if you are ready to build this movement to win in California and in every other state and around the world, let me here you make some noise right now. Woo! [ NOISE ] It's a particularly important campaign because there's so many domestic workers in California. At least 200, 000. And because it would be as the second state to enact this law, it helps us build national momentum. [ FOREIGN ] [ SOUND ] Some of our members started asking for training in elder care. And what we realized was domestic workers are at the front lines of this tremendous demographic shift in this country. Where, on the one hand, immigrant communities are growing, and on the other hand, the country is aging. You can see it in the way that domestic workers are providing support for American families today. And, that's only gonna increasingly be the case going into the future as our need for care grows. Look at a person like [ UNKNOWN ]. She herself was never a domestic worker, yet the love For organizing people and bringing people together at this level, [ CROSSTALK ] I was there in those church basements in the beginning , when it was just you know eight, seven women coming together and sharing their stories and to go from those days to today when we have 35 affiliates in 19 cities in 11 states and And statewide campaigns, and international victories, and national campaigns. It just feels, like it's such a blessing to have been able to bear witness and be a part of history in the making, especially women making history. [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6098412/melinda-french-gates-paid-leave/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6098412/melinda-french-gates-paid-leave/"},"headline":"Melinda French Gates: Our Economy Is Powered by Caregivers. That’s Why It’s Time for National Paid Leave","datePublished":"2021-09-20T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:51:53.649Z","description":"Melinda French Gates writes that at some point almost everyone who works will need time away from their job to take care of themselves or someone they love, and that's why Congress should finally pass paid family and medical leave.","url":"https://time.com/6098412/melinda-french-gates-paid-leave/","keywords":["Economy","nationpod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b86160b285fa637/698a1cf3096a947f6f6abaa4/paid-family-leave-melinda-gates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melinda French Gates","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melinda-gates/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b86160b285fa637/698a1cf3096a947f6f6abaa4/paid-family-leave-melinda-gates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"paid-family-leave-melinda-gates","caption":"The United States is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t guarantee paid leave of any kind, yet seventy-five percent of U.S. voters support a national paid family and medical leave policy","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/economy/","name":"Economy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6098412/melinda-french-gates-paid-leave/","name":"Melinda French Gates: Our Economy Is Powered by Caregivers. That’s Why It’s Time for National Paid Leave"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Ai-jen Poo: Caring for the Caregivers","description":"Ai-jen Poo leads a nationwide movement of nannies, housekeepers and care workers to gain long overdue workers' rights","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Y91ff0rt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2012-04-18T10:42:34.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Y91ff0rt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6098412/melinda-french-gates-paid-leave/","duration":"PT6M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6098412/melinda-french-gates-paid-leave/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```