Jasmine Payne-Patterson

Raising a Family Is Increasingly Expensive. The Child Care for Working Families Act Would Help. Imagine families having reliable, stable child care options that met their needs—affordable, convenient, with no wait list—and ensured their children were

Today @murray.senate.gov and @bobbyscott.house.gov reintroduced the Child Care for Working Families Act. This critical legislation would make child care affordable so that all parents have high-quality care options for their children. A quick thread on why this matters 🧵 tcf.org/content/comm...

HHS announced today they will consider Head Start a welfare program, not an education program, and will subject it to new citizenship requirements. This goes against decades of legal precedence that all children in America have a right to education. Announcement here. www.hhs.gov/press-room/p...

Pay Equity for Black Women is still 200 Years Away — Feminist This country was built by Black women’s labor — stolen, unpaid, underpaid — and equity delayed, is equity denied. Black women shouldn’t have to wait 200 more years to be paid what they’re owed.

Today is Black Women's Equal Pay Day: 191 days into this year, Black women have just caught up to earning what white non-Hispanic men were paid in 2024 alone. The pay gap adds up to nearly $1 million in lost wages.

Learn more and take action ⤵️

Feminists.co/discover/black-womens-equal-pay-day

Learn more about the CROWN Act in our blog from EPI's @jasminepp.bsky.social:

www.epi.org/blog/half-of...

With Trump's attacks on equity & diversity, it's more important than ever to protect Black & brown people from hair discrimination.

On this CROWN Day, 27 states have already passed the #CROWNAct, but more states need to combat racism & ban hair discrimination at work, school, & beyond! #CROWNLove

We have to do more to support working families, especially women in light of proposed Medicaid cuts that will make child birth more dangerous! No one should have to make the impossible decision of choosing between their health/bonding time and financially supporting their baby.

I wrote this blog to highlight the importance of paid parental leave and a comprehensive PFML (www.epi.org/blog/progres...)

My story is not unique, however, there is still no guaranteed national PFML law and in steps toward paid leave, Alabama has the most progressive state paid parental leave law in the South.

I had a successful recovery, but it took over a month for my blood pressure to regulate and I still needed that time to make sure my new favorite girl was doing well. Undoubtedly, my recovery would not have been as smooth if not for paid parental leave.

Last year, as I neared the final weeks before my due date, I was emergency induced due to Preeclampsia. After she was born, all I wanted to do was look at her precious face and hold her little hand. That was interrupted by medical procedures to manage my seizure-level blood pressure

🧵Mother and Father’s Day are over but in light of so many horrific I cuts, I want to again highlight the urgent need for a comprehensive Paid Family and Medical Leave program in addition to other protections!

We have to do more to support working families, especially women in light of proposed Medicaid cuts that will make child birth more dangerous! No one should have to make the impossible decision of choosing between their health/bonding time and financially supporting their baby.

My story is not unique, however, there is still no guaranteed national PFML law and in steps toward paid leave, Alabama has the most progressive state paid parental leave law in the South.

I had a successful recovery, but it took over a month for my blood pressure to regulate and I still needed that time to make sure my new favorite girl was doing well. Undoubtedly, my recovery would not have been as smooth if not for paid parental leave.

Last year, as I neared the final weeks before my due date, I was emergency induced due to Preeclampsia. After she was born, all I wanted to do was look at her precious face and hold her little hand. That was interrupted by medical procedures to manage my seizure-level blood pressure.

Crockett: How is it that you can explain that we still are running up the credit card and we have nothing to show for it except for the fact that we won't have food on the tables and we won’t have health care.

"This country deserves better than this dumpster fire of a bill," says EPI President @hshierholz.bsky.social.

Read her full statement here: www.epi.org/press/epi-pr...

A history of the federal minimum wage: 85 years later, the minimum wage is far from equitable The minimum wage is a New Deal era policy established initially through the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). The original bill set a wage floor, instituted a 44-hour work week, and protected c...

When the FLSA established a federal minimum wage, it didn't cover all workers due to racist occupational exclusions. We've seen important steps to expand coverage since then, but we still have further to go:

www.epi.org/blog/a-histo...

Happy anniversary to the Fair Labor Standards Act! 🎉

We hope you last another 87 years—and that you get some long-overdue improvements!

The FLSA brought us important labor standards like the federal minimum wage and child labor protections.

Check out our work on these important topics: 🧵

Chart titled: “Low-income Southerners pay twice as much tax as the richest 1%, on average” Bar graph shows tax rates of lowest 20% and top 1% for each Southern state

In the South, low-income people pay twice as much tax as the richest 1%

Does that seem fair to you?

Many Southern states prioritize corporations & the rich, at the expense of working people. We need to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes!

www.epi.org/publication/...

Politico headline reading: "Wealthy gain, low-income people lose from GOP megabill, analysis finds"

Today, House Republicans passed a dangerous bill that betrays working people, takes food from kids, & rips away health care from the poor to give massive tax breaks to the rich.

EPI condemns this bill and all who voted for it. The Senate needs to reject this bill.

www.epi.org/press/epi-co...

Trump executive order to dismantle federal worker unions is an autocratic power grab President Trump dismantling collective bargaining rights from more than a million federal workers is pure political retribution. The administration has selectively revoked collective bargaining rights...

EPI's Heidi Shierholz on Trump's latest salvo--dismantling collective bargaining for federal workers:

"This is the behavior of an autocrat who grants rights to those who bow down to him and strips the rights of those who challenge him."

www.epi.org/press/trump-...

Screenshot of the AFL-CIO's statement condemning the Trump administration's executive order stripping collective bargaining and union rights from workers across the federal government.

Stripping collective bargaining and union rights from workers across the federal government is the very definition of union busting — and a blatant attempt to silence us.

We will fight this outrageous attack on our members with every fiber of our collective being.

We’re here, we’re seeds, we’re power!