• Polling

Americans Overwhelmingly Support Paid Family And Medical Leave

Friday, September 23, 2022 By Bryan Bennett
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Welcome to NAVIGATOR – a project designed to better understand the American public’s views on issues of the day and help advocates, elected officials, and other interested parties understand the language, imagery, and messaging needed to make and win key policy arguments.
Key takeaways
  • Overwhelming majorities across party, race, and ethnicity support a federal paid family and medical leave program.
  • Majorities would be more likely to support a candidate who supported paid family and medical leave and would feel more motivated to vote in the midterms if Congress passed it.
  • A range of reasons are strong to support paid family and medical leave, including the benefits helping across families, improving health outcomes, and boosting morale and lowering employee turnover.

Four in Five Americans Support Paid Family and Medical Leave

Overwhelming and bipartisan majorities support the creation of such a program, including more than three in four independents (76%) and seven in ten Republicans (70%); more than three in four across racial and ethnic groups support the plan.

Majorities More Likely to Vote for a Supporter of Paid Leave and More Motivated to Vote if Congress Passed Paid Leave

Democrats (68% more likely to support, 65% more motivated to vote), Black Americans 57%, 58%), and Hispanic Americans (61% each) in particular would be more likely to support such a candidate and more motivated to vote in the upcoming midterms.

A Range of Arguments in Favor of Paid Leave Are Convincing to Three in Four Americans

The most convincing arguments to support paid leave focus on how it helps everyone in families, improves health outcomes for children, parents, and the elderly, and boosts morale and lower employee turnover by making employees feel fairly paid and supported.

About The Study

Global Strategy Group conducted public opinion surveys among a sample of 1,001 registered voters from September 8-September 11, 2022. 96 additional interviews were conducted among Hispanic voters. 76 additional interviews were conducted among Asian American and Pacific Islander voters. 100 additional interviews were conducted among African American voters. 99 additional interviews were conducted among independent voters.

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About Navigator

In a world where the news cycle is the length of a tweet, our leaders often lack the real-time public-sentiment analysis to shape the best approaches to talking about the issues that matter the most. Navigator is designed to act as a consistent, flexible, responsive tool to inform policy debates by conducting research and reliable guidance to inform allies, elected leaders, and the press. Navigator is a project led by pollsters from Global Strategy Group and GBAO along with an advisory committee, including: Andrea Purse, progressive strategist; Arkadi Gerney, The Hub Project; Joel Payne, The Hub Project; Christina Reynolds, EMILY’s List; Delvone Michael, Working Families; Felicia Wong, Roosevelt Institute; Mike Podhorzer, AFL-CIO; Jesse Ferguson, progressive strategist; Navin Nayak, Center for American Progress Action Fund; Stephanie Valencia, EquisLabs; and Melanie Newman, Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

For press inquiries contact: press@navigatorresearch.org