Why Aren’t There Federal Workplace Protections for Domestic Violence Victims?

Sen. Patty Murray's new bill would establish paid leave, workplace protections, and unemployment benefits for domestic violence victims. Advocates call it the most ambitious federal effort yet to recognize domestic violence as an economic issue.

By Kylie Cheung | September 30, 2024 | 10:12am

Politics

Why Aren’t There Federal Workplace Protections for Domestic Violence Victims?

Over the last decade that Marium Durrani, vice president of policy at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, has spent providing legal advocacy to survivors, she’s heard harrowing stories from victims fearing not only for their physical safety, but often for their financial stability as well. She’s heard from survivors on the brink of losing health insurance and housing after leaving abusers; survivors who have lost jobs because of sabotage from abusive partners; survivors who’ve found themselves with no income or savings after exiting abusive relationships—including victims of financial abuse, like people whose exes took out loans or opened credit cards in their name without their consent. She’s heard from victims who have lost jobs because of all the court dates in domestic violence trials, and from victims dealing with medical debt incurred while treating abuse they’ve incurred.

“At the Hotline, we know acutely well how addressing the financial ramifications of violence is critical for survivors’ economic security, and not just that they might experience it during an abusive relationship, but will probably economically struggle while trying to leave, or for a long time after,” Durrani told Jezebel.

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One in four American women will experience domestic violence. But there’s no federal policy on workplace discrimination against domestic violence survivors, nor workplace leave policy for those having to navigate the extensive fallout of experiencing abuse. In 2019, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) introduced the Security and Financial Empowerment (SAFE) for Survivors Act, but the bill received little national attention and never received a vote. Last week, Murray and fellow congressional Democrats introduced the SAFE for Survivors Act of 2024, which the Hotline endorsed alongside several other leading survivor advocacy organizations.

In a statement shared with Jezebel, Murray said she’s “been pushing to make progress” on the SAFE Act for years, and successfully added some of its provisions into a funding bill in December 2022. This included a provision to ensure Temporary Assistance for Needy Families has funding to provide information to survivors on resources available to them. “But it wasn’t anywhere near the progress we need. We have to build on that momentum, which is what I want to do by reintroducing this bill,” Murray said.

The latest version of the SAFE Act, Durrani said, is even better than its 2019 iteration. The bill establishes the first federal framework for domestic violence victims to have a right to paid and unpaid leave from work, among other life-saving protections. Specifically, the bill allows victims to take time off from work—40 days of leave, 10 of which must be paid—without retaliation from their employer. The bill notes that survivors may need this time off to attend court appearances, seek legal assistance, or work on their “safety plan” to escape an abuser. The bill also requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to help survivors who are navigating abusive situations, allows victims to access unemployment benefits if they’re fired or forced to leave their job due to abuse, and prohibits insurers from denying them coverage for abuse they’ve experienced.

“It’s really about making sure that survivors have their basic needs met if they’re trying to get out of an abusive situation, and have court dates, or need to take a day to find a new apartment, or anything, and have a structure that allows them to do that without losing their job or worse,” Durrani said. Too often, she hears from callers who are “nervous or scared to put in leave requests, or disclose what’s going on to their employers,” especially if “they were let go from their last job” over incidents related to experiencing domestic violence. “That should be the least of their worries” while trying to survive.

In many ways, the economic consequences of experiencing gender-based violence are unquantifiable, but there are some available statistics, all of them incredibly bleak. According to data from the Department of Justice, rape costs victims $127 billion annually. A 2022 study of national data from emergency room visits in 2019 found that sexual assault-related visits cost an average of $3,551 per visit. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center estimates the lifetime economic cost of rape across all U.S. victims stands at nearly $3.1 trillion, including $1.2 trillion in medical costs, $1.6 trillion in lost productivity, and $234 billion in legal costs. The current, worsening legal landscape around abortion hasn’t helped: Being denied abortion simultaneously pushes abortion seekers deeper into poverty, per the landmark Turnaway Study, and also makes them more vulnerable to long-term domestic violence.

In July, one undocumented immigrant mother and domestic violence survivor living in New York City told Jezebel about the barriers she faced to find permanent housing in 2019 and 2020, which didn’t cease until she found a case manager at the nonprofit New Destiny Housing willing to help her. According to a report the nonprofit published in July, domestic violence has become a larger driver of family homelessness than evictions in New York City. In 2023, more than one-fifth of families with children living in domestic violence shelters identified domestic violence as the cause of their homelessness, compared to 11% citing evictions.

“Just earlier this month I was at Mary’s Place in Seattle, hearing firsthand from survivors and providers about how financial challenges still hold so many women back from seeking the help they need when they are facing domestic abuse,” Murray said. “We cannot leave these women trapped choosing between their physical safety and financial stability.”

Domestic violence still isn’t widely understood as an economic justice issue and, similarly, financial abuse is a lesser known form of domestic violence. Durrani suggested this is because financial abuse is “more insidious than emotional abuse or physical violence.” But like all other forms of abuse, it “can start very small—maybe a partner asking for control of a certain bank account or calling [a] workplace to interfere with [their partner’s] job,” she said. “It creeps up on you and leads to long-term, cumulative harm.” Eventually victims may find themselves entrapped by, or dependent on, their abusive partner, unable to leave. That’s the point—and exactly what the SAFE Act is trying to address.