{"id":84826,"date":"2025-02-12T23:39:39","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T23:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/womens-foundation-of-alabamas-essential-plan-to-boost-workforce-inclusion\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T23:39:39","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T23:39:39","slug":"womens-foundation-of-alabamas-essential-plan-to-boost-workforce-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=84826","title":{"rendered":"Women&#8217;s Foundation of Alabama&#8217;s EssentiAL Plan to boost workforce inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An Alabama foundation focused on expanding economic opportunities for women continues to promote its plans to build a more inclusive workforce in all 67 counties during the 2025 legislative session.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Women\u2019s Foundation of Alabama has outlined data-driven solutions in the EssentiAL Plan to address the barriers that women in Alabama face in the workforce and note their important role in it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The EssentiAL Plan, launched in 2022, has shaped policies to increase women\u2019s participation in the workforce, ensure equal pay, and support childcare access.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alabama has one of the country\u2019s lowest female labor participation rates, at only 55 percent, yet women make up nearly half of the state\u2019s workforce. At the same time, women contribute $43 billion to the state\u2019s economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The EssentiAL Plan is designed to support women and families while also addressing Alabama\u2019s growing workforce demands. It introduces practical, non-partisan policies that improve women\u2019s economic opportunities and create a more inclusive workforce.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">First, it proposes Alabama\u2019s first paid family leave program, which would benefit 1.8 million workers, including 30,000 state employees, who currently lack access to paid leave.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Governor Ivey is calling for eight weeks of paid maternity leave for Alabama teachers and state employees, which could make the state more competitive in recruiting and retaining workers. At this time, the legislation has not been filed.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\" style=\"margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\"><span class=\"zox-ad-label\">Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It also focuses on increasing funding to help over 85,000 families access quality child care, enabling more women to join and stay in the workforce.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSix years ago, my charge was to bring the Foundation off the sidelines and into the game of public policy. From passage of Alabama\u2019s first Equal Pay Statute, to securing $2.25 million in critical investments to scale our nationally renowned public-private workforce development model preparing women for in-demand careers, to the recent adoption of Alabama\u2019s Child Care Tax Credit plan \u2013 this Foundation alongside thousands of women activists and philanthropists have set and won on a powerful agenda,\u201d said Melanie R. Bridgeforth, MSW, President and CEO of Women\u2019s Foundation of Alabama.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last session, Gov. Ivey signed the \u201cWorking for Alabama\u201d legislative package, which included HB358, the child care tax credit bill that was designed to help increase the state\u2019s low labor force participation rate. But at the time, the child care tax credit bill caps the state\u2019s initial investment in the tax credits at $15 million in 2025, plus $5 million for facilities that improve their quality, according to its fiscal note.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is still work to be done to ensure that childcare providers and employers continue to utilize this tax credit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plan emphasizes workforce training programs that connect women to high-wage, in-demand jobs, through student-parent success model.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cBut our work is not done. Right now, Alabama lawmakers have an opportunity to write another impactful chapter for women and families by passing Paid Leave legislation championed just last week by Governor Ivey in her State of the State address. This critical step would bring Alabama into alignment with many other Southeastern states and puts us even closer to boosting labor force participation rates for women thus strengthening families,\u201d said Bridgeforth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Alabama foundation focused on expanding economic opportunities for women continues to promote its plans to build a more inclusive workforce in all 67 counties during the 2025 legislative session.\u00a0 The Women\u2019s Foundation of Alabama has outlined data-driven solutions in the EssentiAL Plan to address the barriers that women in Alabama face in the workforce [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[31439,9174,41906,1780,41907,11566,18085,41908,10933,41909,409,15464,41910],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-84826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-alabamas","tag-boost","tag-child-care-tax-credit","tag-essential","tag-essential-plan","tag-foundation","tag-inclusion","tag-paid-leave-legislation","tag-plan","tag-womens-foundation-of-alabama","tag-womens","tag-workforce","tag-workforce-inclusion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - 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