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We are hiring: Staff Attorney

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The Southwest Women’s Law Center is looking for a Staff Attorney to extend and strengthen our work and to develop the Center’s capacity to engage in impactful litigation in collaboration with attorneys in the private bar.

The Staff Attorney will report to the Executive Director of the Center and is expected to be able to participate in the full range of the Center’s programs and planning as needed.

The Center engages in significant administrative advocacy with state and local government agencies and is seeking – through this position – to extend and strengthen that work and to develop the Center’s capacity to engage in impact litigation in collaboration with attorneys in the private bar. The Staff Attorney will be responsible for the Center’s Title IX advocacy, civil legal services work on behalf of low-income women in NM, including public benefits and housing work impacting survivors of domestic violence, women’s health and reproductive rights advocacy, and other areas as assigned.

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We are hiring!

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The Southwest Women’s Law Center is looking for a Development Specialist to help us build our fundraising capacity from the ground up.

Established in 2005, the Southwest Women’s Law Center (SWLC) works on issues that impact women and girls around reproductive rights, economic security, and gender discrimination in New Mexico.

We are looking for a donor relations/fundraising professional who has a passion for our mission and vision and is excited to share it with the community.

As a small nonprofit, the SWLC relies heavily on grants to allow us to do our work and we are looking to expand our operations

View Details and Apply

Virtual Screening: ZERO WEEKS

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Free Virtual Screening and Panel Discussion

Virtual Screening & Panel Discussion
July 13th, 2021 at 6:00pm

Join us for a special screening of ZERO WEEKS, a feature-length documentary that explores America’s paid leave crisis and the cost of doing nothing.

After the film, there will be a panel discussion about the film and the effort to bring PaidFamily & Medical Leave (PFML) to New Mexico. This is an opportunity to learn moreabout PFML, hear from experts in the state, and begin taking action from the comfort ofyour own home.

Register Here
Preview Trailer

Op-Ed: Paid family and medical leave is an investment in New Mexico’s future

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Tracy McDaniel
Southwest Women’s Law Center
Las Cruces Sun News

In the last few years, Southwest Women’s Law Center has led a coalition advocating for the passage of Paid Family and Medical Leave Act in the New Mexico state legislature. PFMLA would create a state-administered trust fund that ensures that no one has to choose between their job and caring for a new child, a family member with a serious health concern, or their own serious medical condition.

Last year, the Doña Ana County Early Childhood Education Coalition, a part of the prenatal to career education initiative called the SUCCESS Partnership, joined a growing number of organizations, individuals, and small business owners asking the state to make this critical investment in working families. Bringing Paid Family & Medical Leave to New Mexico is a goal of the Children Born into Healthy Homes Action Network, and the reasons are clear.

In states with PFML programs, families who take paid leave to welcome a new child have better outcomes. PFML programs have been found to decrease child abuse injuries and infant mortality, increase vaccination and breastfeeding rates, and improve the physical and mental health of parents during the first two years of life.

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Read Full Article on LC Sun News

Why the governor and legislature should support the Paid Family & Medical Leave Act

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To the editor:
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the ways in which U.S. workers struggle to balance work, health, and family obligations. This is particularly true for women, especially women of color, who have left the workforce at shocking rates in the last year, including 275,000 American women in January 2021 alone. We can and must find ways to help New Mexicans create balance between work obligations and caring for their health and their family.


If passed and signed into law, the Paid Family & Medical Leave Act (HB38) would create a state-administered trust fund that ensures that no one has to choose between their job and caring for a new child, a family member with a serious health concern, or their own medical condition. After an initial investment of $30 million dollars for start-up costs, which will be repaid to the state within the first five years of the program, employee and employer contributions will fund compensation payments and administration of the fund.


How will this work? After contributing to the fund for at least six months and submitting an application to the Department of Workforce Solutions, workers will receive a percentage of their average weekly wages for up to 12 weeks of leave. Self-employed individuals can opt into the program. Employees and self-employed individuals will receive leave compensation payments directly from the Trust Fund. During an employee’s leave period, employers will benefit from wage savings, which may be used to pay overtime wages for current employees, hire a temporary replacement, or to invest in other ways.


The costs for each worker are modest with a full-time minimum wage worker ($21,840 annual salary) paying only $109.20 annually and their employer paying $87.36 annually. For the average wage in New Mexico ($47,040 annual salary), the worker will pay $235.20 annually and the employer will pay $188.16 annually.


Both employers and workers will benefit from PFML programs. Employers who offer PRML have a competitive advantage in hiring and retention. PFML programs are effective in improving workers performance and engagement. Workers who take paid leave are more likely to be employed by the same business two years later, less likely to take sick leave when they return to work, and more likely to report high morale and workplace satisfaction. Like the public sector in New Mexico, large corporations understand this competitive edge. These corporations are increasingly likely to offer private paid leave programs to attract and retain high-quality workers. However, few of our homegrown New Mexico businesses are large enough to easily absorb the costs of offering this benefit.


New Mexico is proud to offer entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small businesses an opportunity to innovate, experiment, and grow right here in the Land of Enchantment. Because of the economic downturn, HB38 proposes a delayed implementation timeline with more than two years to begin rolling out the program. The delayed implementation timeline recognizes both the economic realities facing New Mexico and the urgency of the moment.


Terrelene Massey, Executive Director
Southwest Women’s Law Center
Albuquerque

Download Editorial via Gallup Independent:

OP-ED-Gallup-independentDownload

My View Tracy McDaniel: Paid Family and Medical Leave Can’t Wait

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By Tracy McDaniel
Feb 28, 2021

COVID-19 made clear that U.S. workers struggle to balance work, health, and family obligations. This is particularly true for women, especially women of color, who have left the workforce at alarming rates in the last year, including 275,000 American women in January alone. This exodus of women from the workplace is due in large part to the conflict between work and caregiving. We can and must find ways to help New Mexicans balance work obligations and caring for their health and their families.

The U.S. has struggled to cope with the economic realities of the pandemic in ways that other countries have not. One significant reason for this difference is the lack of support for workers who are suddenly unable to participate in the workforce due to health-related or caregiving concerns.

Among wealthy nations, the U.S. stands alone in its failure to ensure paid sick leave and paid family leave to workers.

As one of their first acts in response to COVID-19 in March, members of the U.S. Congress enacted temporary paid sick and paid family leave. While leaders in other countries were working to address the myriad issues related to the economic and public health crises, Congress was caught debating paid leave measures that have been guaranteed to workers elsewhere around the world for years. The provisions they passed were temporary, limited and have since expired.

Guaranteed paid leave has been replaced with a temporary tax credit for employers who choose to provide leave. Because of the limited reach and voluntary nature of these provisions, many New Mexicans have been unable to access this support.

While limited in their reach among New Mexicans, this series of rushed temporary measures at the federal level have demonstrated that paid leave policies are necessary to an economy’s ability to respond, adapt and bounce back from major financial and public health disruption. Based on an Urban Institute analysis, states with existing paid family and medical leave programs were better able to respond to pandemic-related claims than those relying solely on unemployment insurance systems.

If New Mexico had a such a program in place before the pandemic, our economy and our communities would have suffered less from coronavirus-related hardships. We now have the opportunity to create systems that support future economic resilience for New Mexico.

The state Legislature currently is considering House Bill 38, which would create the Paid Family and Medical Leave Trust Fund administered through the Department of Workforce Solutions. After six months of contributions, individuals would be able to receive leave compensation from the trust fund to take up to 12 weeks away from work to welcome a new child, manage a serious health condition or care for a family member with a serious health condition.

Because of the economic downturn, HB 38 proposes a delayed implementation timeline with more than two years to begin rolling out the program. The delay recognizes both the economic realities facing New Mexico and the urgency of the moment.

In the face of an unprecedented crisis last spring, precious time was wasted at all levels of government, scrambling to deal with a problem that other countries have already solved. We must support workers and ensure economic stability. A paid family and medical leave policy is imperative to our economic security at the individual, community, state and national level. For New Mexico to be ready for the next emergency and to protect everyday workers experiencing caregiving needs and health conditions, we must act now to enact paid family and medical leave.

Tracy McDaniel is a policy advocate with Southwest Women’s Law Center. She has been working to improve
outcomes for young children and families in New Mexico since 2009.

Read on Santa Fe Reporter