Monetary independence is crucial for individuals experiencing home violence, sexual assault, or stalking. It may be particularly difficult, and even unattainable, for them to flee abuse in the event that they lose their jobs and face heightened financial insecurity.
However a brand new information launched right now by FUTURES WITHOUT VIOLENCE and Authorized Momentum finds that few states have enacted the sort of employment legal guidelines that assist individuals going through violence maintain their jobs – and the legal guidelines that do exist usually are not at all times complied with or enforced. Altering that must be a excessive precedence for state lawmakers when state legislative classes start early subsequent 12 months.
Our new State Information on Employment Rights for Survivors of Home Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking identifies office protections now on the books in 4 classes important for survivors: anti-discrimination protections, affordable lodging within the office, go away/day off, and unemployment insurance coverage. It appears to be like at legal guidelines in all 50 states and a number of other territories and finds that the one employment safety that’s obtainable in most states is unemployment insurance coverage for survivors.
Solely California, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Washington, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have enacted strong authorized protections, the information finds. Kentucky and West Virginia have enacted no statewide protections in any respect, and Alabama, Iowa, Ohio, Tennessee, and Utah have solely minimal office protections. 
The brand new Information confirms that there’s a lot of state-level work nonetheless to do, specifically to place anti-discrimination protections particularly for survivors of sexual and home violence in place, and to offer paid go away that survivors can use and that’s not restricted to authorized proceedings.
With 83% of respondents to a 2018 survey reporting that their abusive companions disrupted their potential to work – and amongst those that skilled a number of disruptions, 70% weren’t capable of have a job once they needed or wanted one, and 53% report losing a job due to the abuse – enhancing state legal guidelines must be a excessive precedence. Our new information is a name to motion to lawmakers to enact legal guidelines that may assist individuals going through violence maintain their jobs. That’s why FUTURES and Authorized Momentum have produced a Guidelines of issues to assist federal, state, and native lawmakers develop or amend office protections to make them more practical and extra accessible to survivors of home violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
The State Information on Employment Rights for Survivors of Home Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking is supported by the Workplace on Violence Towards Ladies (OVW), U.S. Division of Justice. Its opinions, findings, conclusions, and proposals are these of the authors and don’t essentially replicate the views of the Division of Justice, Workplace on Violence Towards Ladies.
