My husband Mark and I have run a company renovating barns for the past 20 years, including on our DIY Network televisions Barnwood Builders. Our show has translated into a home decor store, Barnwood Living in White Sulphur Springs, WV.

Even with this level of success, we are still a very small business and offering paid leave without a federal program has not been possible. When we had an employee who was pregnant and we did not want to lose her. We talked to our employee and ended up paying her her salary so we wouldn't lose her, while we picked up the extra work. It was tough on our business, but without a strong national paid leave policy, we had no other option. A federal policy would mean our employees could still receive their salaries on leave, and we could use the extra funds to hire temporary workers or pay overtime for other staff rather than doubling up on salaries.

During the pandemic, being a caregiver became a full-time job for me. One of my kids has Down Syndrome and was at high risk. I had to put my child’s safety first. And then, in November, my brother got Covid. My mom lives with him and she tested positive, too. Then my sister-in-law and their two kids needed support— and I am their support. While they were quarantined and recovered, I took care of them — errands, the drugstore, groceries. The whole time, I felt so scared — for them, for my family, for my business, but what could I do? They’re my family and they needed me. Looking back, having a paid leave policy would have been a game-changer for me, for my employees, for my business, for my family. I certainly hope we never have another pandemic like this, but what I learned was that when someone in your family needs care — doesn’t matter what for — you’re on your own. That’s not right, and it’s definitely not right for small business owners like me. Nobody should have to choose between caring for themselves or a loved one and their livelihood.

We want to feel competitive with larger businesses in the benefits we can offer. As a micro business, any benefits come directly out of our pocket. Recruitment and retention is a struggle. We’ve had employees leave for better benefits and higher pay from corporations. Retention of those skilled employees matters a lot to my business. I want our employees to feel taken care of, and not be afraid to take time off and lose wages. Butchering is a labor-intensive skill.

I own Superior Pocahontas Construction and Bucane Medical Supplies, both based in Logan, WV. Before opening my own businesses, I was a registered nurse (RN). When my daughter was born three months early, she was in the NICU for several months. During that time, I was only able to take off four days, because I did not have access to paid leave. My wife was unable to work during this time and was with our daughter in the hospital.

Now that I’m a business owner, I want to offer paid leave and for me, even a payroll tax would be an easier way for everyone to afford it. I offer health insurance at my company of 40 or so employees, but some times it’s not enough. Once, I had an employee who developed gangrene and had to take extended time off work to heal. I didn't want to lose the employee so paid him out of pocket when he was unable to be at work. A national paid leave program would be critical for situations we cannot predict.

The lack of paid leave is a huge problem for me as a small business owner. When one of my employees broke both her arms a few years ago, I had to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for medical leave. Recently, I had an employee who needed a hip replacement, and she needed time to heal for 10 weeks. I want to be able to cover her, but doing so would be a huge financial hit to our business and our family. The last time we covered medical leave out of pocket, we fell behind on our commercial lease and home mortgage. Our current case-by-case out-of-pocket practice could sink our business.

There are not enough policies and systems in place to help support women thriving as an entrepreneur once they start having kids, so the reality is that women don’t get over the initial hurdle of founding a company. This country deserves more, should do more, and can do more. Let’s support women and babies with paid parental leave and universal childcare support, which are both articulated in the American Families Plan proposed by the Biden administration. If we want to increase the number of female entrepreneurs, this is the way to do it. If we want to tackle large societal issues with more financial success and jobs for our nation’s economy, let’s better support and take advantage of half of our population.

Four years ago one of my employees came to me and said his wife was having twins. He needed help getting some paid time off, and we weren’t sure to what to do. Luckily, I had a friend who knew about New Jersey’s Family Leave Insurance Program. The paperwork was pretty straightforward. We filled it out together and sent it in, and he got two thirds of his wages replaced while bonding with his twins. He is a very important part of my business, and this was very important to his life. So we made adjustments, he got some paid time with his family, and he’s still with us.

I also remember life before our paid leave program, and I know that’s still the reality for most small businesses and workers around the country. In 2006, before there was any such program, I had an employee who had to leave his job because of family needs. I only found out after the fact that his mother was dying of cancer, around the Christmas season. He could have really used the New Jersey Family Leave Insurance then. This was awful for him. It was a tough loss for me personally since along with losing an employee, I also lost a longtime friend. It was also detrimental to my business. He had been my best employee for several years and performed many critical management functions. The costs of the time and money it took to replace him were astronomical. I had to take time away from my responsibilities as the owner to fill the gap in the interim. The difference the state Family Leave Insurance Law has made for my employees and my business is clear.

The pandemic we are slowly emerging from taught us a few things about our economy and our public health. It taught us that some of the most important workers, the ones we can’t live without, don’t often receive the pay and the benefits commensurate with their importance. It also taught us that at some point all of us will need to miss some work—whether to get healthy or to care for a loved one—and that it’s better to have a plan in place for these absences than to make one up as we go along. In New Jersey, where I live, we have had a paid family and medical leave program since 2009. Here is what I got as a small business with fifteen employees: a benefit program that increased the pool of prospective employees who might choose to work for my small company instead of a major corporation that can afford these types of benefits on their own. We can and should make it a national program. The time is now to pass a national, universal paid family and medical leave policy—for our small businesses, our families and our communities.

East Wheeling Clayworks began as a garage startup in 2016, selling our ceramics at festivals and trade shows. We eventually both quit our jobs, Adam in construction and Beth in an office and both went full time at EWC. One month later, Beth found out she was pregnant and expecting their first child. Without paid leave, and child care, we struggled to make it work with our brand new businesses selling ceramics and offering community pottery classes. We also have no child care and both play integral roles at East Wheeling Clayworks, so our daughter Ollie goes with them to the shop each day.

As an employee at a major corporation, and now a small business owner and consultant I have seen firsthand how our lack of a national paid leave program is hurting businesses of all sizes and their employees. Far too many families are suffering financial hardship due to lack of paid leave when a family member needs the worker(s) to be at home. Some workers, especially women, are leaving the workforce because the US doesn’t have a paid leave policy that supports them taking the time they need to care for their loved ones without jeopardizing their household budget. This results in businesses of all sizes spending too much for staff turnover in recruitment and training as well as lost productivity, plus less money flowing in the economy overall. This pandemic has been a wake-up call - we need to make passing a national paid leave program a priority in 2021.

As a father and a small family business owner I know first hand how important it is to have a safety net when you or an employee needs to take time off to care for themselves or a family member. My wife had a difficult pregnancy and unforeseen complications after the birth -- and needed much more than the two weeks sick leave she had from her job to recover. She lost her job and I was back at work two days after our child was born. In this world you never really know what is going to happen. A national, comprehensive paid leave plan would be the Plan B that so many families need to when those unforeseen circumstances come up. Small businesses owners and our employees should have time to care for themselves and their loved ones -- without having to put their paycheck or job at risk.

At the Business Women’s Circle, we’ve been helping women grow their businesses and themselves through accountability, learning, and peer support. We have been in business for over 12 years and in that time I have seen the difficulty that small businesses face when it comes to supporting themselves or their employees for paid family or medical leave.

As co-founder and president of Urban Evolutions in Appleton WI, Robin Janson has dealt with the challenges of pushing the national construction industry to make planet-healthy choices for nearly 25 years. She takes that same determined approach to providing a healthy, fair and supportive workplace for her employees in a small business setting. Smaller staffs can have less flexibility when it comes to providing options for leave, both in economic terms and in providing job coverage. Despite those challenges, employees and businesses require clear, affordable, and reliable options for family leave. Robin looks forward to participating with fellow business owners in championing universal paid leave policies.

As a business owner I would love to have paid leave support built into the system, to ensure my employees have robust protection for times they need to take leave. I have not been able to provide this type of protection to them privately, and would love to have it rolled into our current payroll and tax system so ALL workers are protected and able to take leave when necessary. It's a win-win-win! for our economy, workers and small business owners. If we want to see our local communities and economies thrive we need to give people Protected Time to step out of the financial economy when they need, as they are doing the critical work in the care economy, which has gone unpaid for too long.

We are in the death care business and saw early on that everyone - no matter their age, race or occupation - was at risk of dying from COVID. Being on the frontlines, our staff were exposed, infected and had to quarantine. FFCRA was absolutely critical to helping our business through this crisis. Small businesses and our employees critically need emergency leave extended and a permanent solution so we are better prepared for the next crisis, big or small.

Our staff is down by 50% and our revenue even more so from last year. While we have made our COVID policies as strong as possible, it’s just true that front-line workers living in multi-generational households get exposed and sick more often. That made having access to paid sick leave through FFCRA all the more important for my business and staff. Small businesses urgently need our elected officials to include an expansion of emergency paid leave in the next rescue package and to begin work on a permanent solution.

Having access to this paid leave meant I could continue to pay my entire staff—18 people—even though they couldn’t work because of the public health measures we took. My employees collected their checks and I could feel confident that making the right decision to protect others wouldn’t mean my employees wouldn’t miss rent or food on the table.

FFCRA serves to supplement our own funds and gives us even more flexibility so that we can support our employees to make decisions that put their health and safety first. This has been critical and is essential to public health. We urge Congress to extend the program beyond December 31st, 2020 and to expand benefits to all workers. It is imperative that we meet this moment and create meaningful supports for our workers and their families so that they are able to make choices that put the health and safety of their families and co-workers first without putting their financial security at risk.