Womenstake, NWLC's Blog

Last week, my daughter celebrated her first birthday. Marking that important milestone for my family allowed me to reflect on the difference that just a year can make. Today I’m celebrating another important milestone for my family and for yours—the one hundredth birthday of our federal personal income tax—and reflecting on its benefits for all of us.

One hundred years ago today, President Wilson signed the Revenue Act of 1913 into law, giving birth to the personal income tax. Although that first personal income tax looked a lot different than it does today, its adoption signified an important shift in our country’s approach to raising revenue. In honor of this important birthday, here are two things to celebrate about the federal personal income tax—and one suggestion to make the next hundred years even better.

California just enacted the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, joining New York and Hawaii as states that care for those who care for the vulnerable. Domestic workers are an important part of today’s work force. These workers – 95 percent of whom are women – care for the household, the children and grandparents, the sick and people with disabilities. In the words of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, they do “the work that makes all other work possible.” And yet, they are often paid very low wages, and work in difficult conditions.

After 7 years of advocacy and two vetoes, California’s domestic workers will finally receive a very important workplace protection: the right to overtime pay. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it can be for workers who spend all day taking care of children, the elderly and the infirm. The bill of rights is estimated to cover 200,000 California housekeepers, child-care providers, and caregivers.

While the rest of us were watching the season premiere of Saturday Night Live this weekend, the House passed a bill that holds women’s health hostage as a bargaining chip in the debate over shutting down the government.

It is such a typical move by the far-right politicians in the House that it almost plays out like a skit on SNL. They have become caricatures of themselves.

Specifically, late Saturday night, the House passed a continuing resolution that would exempt bosses from complying with the ACA’s Women’s Health Amendment if they oppose it for “religious or moral” reasons. This means that bosses could impose their religious beliefs on their employees, or even block their employees’ access to needed women’s health care for vague and undefined “moral” reasons. Female employees and dependents – just like men – are capable of making their own health decisions and must be allowed to do so without interference from their bosses.