Washington Work and Family Coalition

Washington joins growing list of states with paid sick and safe leave for all — and a better minimum wage!

Washington has joined the growing number of states to adopt paid sick and safe leave for all workers with approval of Initiative 1433.

Starting in January 2018, everyone working in Washington will be assured at least 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. An estimated one million workers in the state do not have any paid sick leave now, and others only very limited access. Four Washington cities have previously passed paid sick leave ordinances, Seattle, SeaTac, Tacoma, and Spokane. In those localities, more generous provisions will continue to prevail, including higher accrual levels in large companies in Seattle

Washington’s minimum wage will go to $11.00 on January 1, 2017, rising in three additional steps to $13.50 in 2020. Thereafter, it will rise with inflation as is currently the case. Without the initiative, the state minimum wage would only have risen 6 cents to $9.53 in 2017, not enough to cover basic expenses in any part of the state.

Paid sick leave can be used for health needs of the worker or a family member, or to deal with legal and safety needs arising from domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Up to 40 hours can be carried over from year to year, with no other annual cap on annual usage.

The Raise Up Washington Coalition of labor, faith, and community organizations wrote the initiative, collected signatures to qualify for the ballot, and conducted a broad grassroots campaign to assure passage of the initiative.

Original: Economic Opportunity Institute »

Innovative states protecting domestic violence survivors using paid “safe days” – Washington can be next!

value-of-paid-safe-days Kami Reep of Sonoma County, California was let go from work twice last year—not because she wasn’t able to perform her duties as a bookkeeper or because she did her job poorly, but because she needed to take time off when her ex-husband and abuser took two of their three young children from an afterschool program and fled the state.

Reep took three days off from work without pay when her children first went missing. Before she returned to the office, Reep was notified by email that she was being fired because of the situation with her ex-husband and the “added stress.”

“I felt like no one else would hire me,” Reep says.

On Election Day, voters in Washington and Arizona will have the option of supporting ballot initiatives that would allow victims of domestic violence to take paid time off from work, too. If Washington’s I-1433 and Arizona’s Prop 206 passes, domestic violence survivors in those states “wouldn’t have to miss a paycheck or make a decision between going to court or going to work, or fear losing their jobs,” says Kellie MacDonald-Evoy, public policy advocate for the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. The Coalition estimates that about 804,000 women and 454,000 men in Arizona will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.

California is among five states (the others are Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Vermont) and a dozen localities (including Chicago, Santa Monica, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC) that have already passed “safe time” laws. This chart created by A Better Balance, a national legal advocacy organization that advocates for family-friendly laws and workplace policies, compares state and local laws offering paid sick and safe time.

You Decide: Will Washington be next to pass paid sick leave?

Now YOU get to make the decisions! After all the ads and negativity of this campaign season, now is your chance to vote for healthier families and stronger communities.

Make Washington the 6th state to pass paid sick days: YES on Initiative 1433

Initiative 1433 assures every worker in Washington has the opportunity to earn at least 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours they work — 6 or 7 days a year if they work full time. It would also raise the state minimum wage in four steps to $13.50 in 2020.

Why It Matters:

1 million people working in Washington don’t get a single day of paid sick leave now. Many of them work in lower wage jobs in restaurants, retail, and caregiving. That means when they have the flu, their child is sick, or their elderly parent has to go to the doctor, they make a choice – sacrifice family and public health or lose that day’s pay.

The current minimum wage of $9.47 isn’t enough to cover the basics for even a single person in communities across our state. Over 90% of the lowest wage workers are adults, many with families to support. A higher minimum wage boosts struggling families, and when workers spend more, that helps local businesses and our whole economy.

Visit Raise Up Washington to learn more about Initiative 1433.

Your votes for state legislators will decide progress on Paid Family Leave, Equal Pay, and more!

It’s a long ballot — don’t give up! Your choice for state legislators will matter on our two BIG priorities for the 2017-18 legislature: Equal Pay and Paid Family and Medical Leave.

Why It Matters:

Let’s end the wage gap! Fair pay and equal career opportunities for women benefit workers families and businesses too — and help build a stronger future for communities all across Washington.

In states that already have paid family and medical leave programs, new babies and moms are healthier, women earn more a year following childbirth, and new dads take more time with a new baby. Workers are also able to cope with their own health crisis or a seriously ill family member without falling into a financial crisis.

Check out your candidates’ positions on paid family and medical leave here