[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 93 (Thursday, June 11, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4108-S4109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SANDERS:
  S. 1564. A bill to require that employers provide not less than 10 
days of paid vacation time to eligible employees, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I want to say a few words about family 
values. ``Family values'' is an expression that has been used for many 
years by my Republican colleagues. Generally speaking, what they mean 
by ``family values'' is opposition to a woman's right to choose, 
opposition to contraception, opposition to gay rights. I happen to 
strongly disagree with many of my Republican colleagues on those 
issues. Let me take the opportunity to briefly give a somewhat 
different perspective on family values--on real family values, on the 
values that really matter to millions of families in this country.
  When a mother gives birth to a baby and is unable to spend time with 
that newborn child during the first weeks and months of that baby's 
life because she does not have the money to stay home and is forced to 
go back to work, which is the case for millions of mothers in this 
country, that is not a family value. Separating a mother from a newborn 
baby for economic reasons is not a family value. In fact, that is an 
attack on everything that a family is supposed to stand for.
  When a wife is diagnosed with cancer and her husband cannot get time 
off of work to take care of her because he does not have any family or 
medical leave time or sick leave time, that is not a family value. That 
is an attack on everything that a family is supposed to stand for.
  When a husband, wife, and kids, during the course of an entire year, 
are unable to spend any time on a vacation, when they cannot get 
together in leisure activity, when they cannot relax and spend quality 
time with each other, that is not a family value.
  Let us be very clear in understanding that, in fact, in terms of 
protecting the needs of our families, in terms of real family values, 
in many, many respects the United States of America lags behind 
virtually every other major country on earth.
  When you look at other major countries, what you find is that the 
United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its 
workers some form of paid family leave, some form of paid sick time, 
some form of paid vacation time. In other words, when it comes to basic 
workplace protections and family benefits, workers in every other major 
industrialized country in the world get a better deal than our workers 
here in the United States. That is wrong. That is a travesty, and that 
has got to change.
  Last place is no place for America. It is time for us to join the 
rest of the industrialized world by showing the people of this country 
that we are not just a nation that talks about family values but that 
we are a nation that is prepared to live up to these ideals by making 
sure that workers in this country have access to paid family leave, 
paid sick time, and paid vacations, just like workers in virtually 
every other major country on earth.
  Simply stated, it is unacceptable that millions of women in this 
country give birth and are forced back to work because they do not have 
the income to stay home with their newborn babies.
  When we talk about family values, what is more important than for 
mothers and fathers to bond with their babies at a time when almost 
every psychologist will tell you those are the most important weeks and 
months of a human being's life? What kind of family value is it when 
you tell a woman who has just had a baby that she cannot spend time 
with her child because she has to go back to work? This is not a family 
value. That is an insult to every mother, every father, and every 
newborn child in this country, and we have to change that.
  The reality is that the Family and Medical Leave Act that was signed 
into law in 1993 is totally inadequate. Today, nearly 8 out of 10 
workers in this country who are eligible to take time off under this 
law cannot do so because they cannot afford to do so, according to the 
Department of Labor. Even worse, 40 percent of American workers are not 
even eligible to receive this unpaid leave because they work for a 
company with fewer than 50 employees.
  In my view, every worker in this country should be guaranteed at 
least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, and that is why I am a 
proud cosponsor of the FAMILY Act, introduced by Kirsten Gillibrand. 
The FAMILY Act would guarantee employees 12 weeks of paid family and 
medical leave to take care of a baby, to help a family member who is 
diagnosed with cancer or has some other serious medical condition or to 
take care of themselves if they become seriously ill. Just like Social 
Security retirement and disability, it is an insurance program that 
workers would pay into at a price of about one cup of coffee a week.
  That is not all. We have to make certain that in this country workers 
have paid sick time. It is absurd that low-wage workers in McDonald's 
and Burger King and low-wage employees all over this country who get 
sick are forced to work because they cannot afford to take time off. 
Not only is this unfair to the workers, it is also a public health 
issue. I do not know about you, but I am not crazy about the idea of 
somebody who is sick coming to work and preparing the food that I eat 
in a restaurant.
  That is why I am supporting the Healthy Families Act, introduced by 
Senator Patty Murray, which guarantees 7 days of paid sick leave to 
American workers. This bill would benefit 43 million Americans who 
today do not have access to paid sick leave, and it would create a 
permanent floor in workplaces where employers already provide some paid 
sick leave.
  Last but not least, when we talk about the disappearing American 
middle class, we are talking about millions of American workers working 
longer hours for lower wages. We are talking about Americans who are 
overworked, underpaid and, in many cases, living under enormous stress. 
In my State of Vermont, I see it every week I am home. You talk to 
people who work not one job but who are working two jobs or sometimes 
three jobs in order to cobble together some income and some health 
care.
  Here is an amazing irony. Many of us can remember in school reading 
about workers protesting, taking to the

[[Page S4109]]

streets 100 years ago, and they held up large banners. Do you know what 
those banners said 100 years ago? They said: We want a 40-hour 
workweek. A 40-hour workweek was the demand 100 years ago. Today, we 
still have not achieved that goal.
  In fact, today 85 percent of men who are working and 66 percent of 
working women are working more than 40 hours a week. In fact, in 
America today--not widely known but true--our people are working the 
longest hours of any major country on Earth, because as real wages go 
down, people have to work 50 hours or they have to work 60 hours. 
Husbands are working here, and wives are working there--all to cobble 
together some income in order to provide for the family.
  Today Americans are working 137 hours a year more than workers in 
Japan--and the Japanese are very hard workers. We are working 260 hours 
more than the British and almost 500 hours a year more than French 
workers.
  That is why I am introducing legislation today to require employers 
to provide at least 10 days of paid vacation to workers in this 
country. This is already done in almost every other major country on 
Earth. It is one more way to demonstrate our commitment to real family 
values. What we are saying is that if families are overworked and if 
husbands and wives do not even have the time to spend together with 
their kids, what family values are about is that at least for 2 weeks a 
year, people can come together under a relaxed environment and enjoy 
the family. That is a family value that I want to see happen in this 
country.
  The time is long overdue for us to start talking about real family 
values, not about abortion, not about gay rights but the values the 
American people want to see inscribed in law to protect their families. 
Let us make sure every American worker is entitled to paid family and 
medical leave, paid sick time, and guaranteed at least some vacation 
time. Those are real family values. Let's go forward and make that 
happen.
                                 ______