Ann O’Leary

Ann O’Leary and Gillian Lester Propose New Family Security Insurance Plan

The Sacramento Bee, December 2, 2010 by Jessica Glenn Hallstrom
http://bit.ly/ew8Ctu

“Current access to paid time off for health and caregiving comes nowhere near to meeting the demand for it. During volatile economic times, many families simply can’t afford to take unpaid time off even for the most pressing and important health and family events,” explained Ann O’Leary.

Gillian Lester, Professor of Law at UC Berkeley and a contributor to the report said, “Addressing the lack of access to paid time off through national social insurance makes good economic sense…. More people need to take time off to care for themselves or a loved one, but few are able to afford the time away from work. This is exactly the kind of problem that social insurance was designed to address.”

Ann O’Leary Studies Alzheimer’s Impact on Families

ABC News, This Week, October 17, 2010 Host Christiane Amanpour
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/womans-nation-takes-alzheimers-11901384

“It’s a tremendous burden on families. We estimate that families are spending 56-thousand dollars a year—they’re paying out of pocket. We don’t have any insurance for this. One of the great things about the health reform bill is we’re going to start. There’s going to be long-term insurance now that’s going to be provided to people through their employers, but there’s so much more we can do to relieve that financial burden.”

Ann O’Leary Calls for Executive Order to Improve Labor Standards

The American Prospect, September 2, 2010 by Ann O’Leary
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_power_to_act

The power delegated to the president by Congress under the Procurement Act is very broad. The president can develop policies that have a real impact in improving labor and employment standards among workers employed by federal contractors. With nearly a quarter of the workforce affected by such conditions, these policies will surely have a ripple effect across the economy.

Ann O’Leary Explains Findings of The Shriver Report

-NBC Today, October 20, 2009 Hosts Al Roker and Natalie Morales
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33247001/

“Parents feel like this is their own private struggle and it’s so frustrating for them. They’re afraid to go to their employer and say, ‘Listen, I need some flexibility, or I need to know when I’m going to work.’ We’re the only industrialized country that doesn’t have paid maternity leave and we’re one of just a handful that doesn’t have paid parental leave for fathers.”

-KCRW, Which Way, L.A.? October 21, 2009 Host Warren Olney
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/ww/ww091021afghanistans_run-off

“One of the things that has changed so much is not only that women are half the workforce, but also mothers are breadwinners in two-thirds of families, meaning they’re making as much or more than their husbands, but they’re doing it on their own, or they’re contributing significantly to the family income. So, as you suggested, it changes everything about how we structure our daily lives and how we structure our work places.”

-The Montel Williams Show, October 22, 2009 Host Montel Williams
http://airamerica.com/ondemand/10-22-2009/montel-10-22-2009-09-04-01/

“Even though women are half the work force, they still are largely concentrated in jobs that are lower-paying. They are in the health care fields, and they are in the education fields, and our teachers and our health aids are just not paid the same respect that we should be giving them. So it’s a start, but we have a lot of work to do to ensure that women get paid what they should be for these jobs.”

Ann O’Leary Believes Public Input Essential in Health Care Debate

San Jose Mercury News, May 13, 2009 by Michael Torrice
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12363638

The health care debate has happened largely behind closed doors in Washington without public discussions about policies’ advantages and disadvantages, said Ann O’Leary, executive director of the University of California-Berkeley’s Center on Health, Economic and Family Security. O’Leary believes politicians need to start discussing plans with the public. “A lot of this work could be undone without educating the public and growing public support,” she said.

Ann O’Leary Advises Maria Shriver on the Status of Women

Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2009 by Tina Daunt
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-cause16-2009apr16,0,5879875.story

This new project aims to produce a “Shriver Report” that also will assess the status of women in government, business, faith institutions and healthcare…. Shriver plans to take a hands-on role in the effortֽ but has enlisted a couple of pretty high-powered co-editorsֽ Center for American Progress senior economist Heather Boushey and Ann O’Learyֽ executive director of the Center on Healthֽ Economic & Family Security at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

Ann O’Leary Urges Obama to Strengthen Workplace Equity Legislation

San Francisco Chronicle, February 4, 2009 by Ann M. O’Leary
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/04/EDK215MH1U.DTL&type=printable

“Obama’s first bill signals the administration’s commitment to workplace equity. But in order to make serious progress on women’s equity and close the wage gap, Obama should urge Congress to act swiftly to expand job-protected family leave, ensure that workers have access to paid sick days, and provide incentives to states to follow California’s lead and adopt paid family leave (but make it even better than California’s law by ensuring that workers’ jobs are protected if they take the leave).”

Ann O’Leary Applauds Obama’s Signing of Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

KPIX-TV, January 30, 2009 by Joe Vasquez
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=45378@kpix.dayport.com

“It was a bit of a ridiculous notion that you would have to sue from the moment in which you were discriminated against, even though you had no knowledge whatsoever that you were being discriminated against…. One of the things that I was really heartened by today was that First Lady Michelle Obama made very clear that this bill was really just the cornerstone of their agenda for trying to help working women.”

Ann O’Leary Predicts Palin Will Disappoint Women Voters

San Francisco Chronicle, September 7, by Ann O’Leary
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/07/INB312NP52.DTL&type=printable
“Women will look to Palin not just for

her views on abortion or to see whether she is an individual success story as a working mother. They’ll want to know whether she will be a voice for women who are economically struggling to provide for their families…. But Gov. Palin has yet to show leadership or even take a position on key economic issues for women, including quality affordable child care, flexible workplaces, paid sick leave, extended family leave or equal pay.”