During the April 28 speech, Biden unveiled his landmark American Families Plan, a $1.8 trillion investment in the nation’s care infrastructure paid for by increasing taxes on wealthy individuals.
Included in Biden’s plan is one of the largest expansions to the U.S. social safety net in decades — a new federal paid leave policy for all workers, which the administration says can be used “to bond with a new child, care for a seriously ill loved one, deal with a loved one’s military deployment, find safety from sexual assault, stalking, or domestic violence, heal from their own serious illness or take time to deal with the death of a loved one.”
Phased in over a 10-year period, the American Families Plan would guarantee workers 12 weeks of paid leave, providing up to $4,000 a month, with a minimum of two-thirds of average weekly wages replaced, rising to 80 percent for the lowest wage workers. This expansion in benefits is likely to have the largest impact on low-wage workers, 95 percent of whom lack any access to paid family leave.
In addition to finally cementing paid leave protections for families, the American Families Plan would also provide funding for universal pre-school and ensure that families earning 1.5 times their state median income will spend no more than 7 percent of their income on child care for their young children, though some Democrats in Congress are pushing the administration to think bigger and bolder when it comes to universal child care.