Senate Appropriations Committee includes $10 million for state paid family leave programs:
In its draft budget, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has included $10 million to help states cover start-up costs for paid family leave programs. It’s not the full $50 million that President Obama proposed, and the federal budget process isn’t finished yet, but this is a promising step for working Americans. So what does this mean for the status of Washington’s stalled paid family leave program? | Read more
Grocery workers’ sick deal
From Nicole Brodeur in the Seattle Times:
Tasha West-Baker can make you a latte, slice your lunch meat or make you a cake at Safeway.
And she could make your entire family ill for days.
West-Baker doesn’t get paid sick days from the grocery chain, where she has worked for seven years. She works four days a week to support three kids on her own. Just staying home with a cold for three days could cost her 75 percent of her weekly paycheck.
That means that when she’s sick, she’s at Safeway – at the Starbucks kiosk, at the deli, in the bakery – and sending her sickness home with our groceries.
Washington Work and Family Coalition 