A Seattle Mom’s Story: Why We All Need Paid Sick Days

One evening in 2010, Monica’s baby had a seizure. After a frantic call to 911, a terrifying rush to the hospital, and a night spent by her son’s side, Monica had to get to her 7 am shift at a local Safeway. She hated to leave her son but she couldn’t afford to lose a day’s pay or risk her job. But now with paid sick days in Seattle, Monica — and more than two and a quarter million other workers across the county — don’t have to leave an ill child or go to work sick.

In Washington, nearly one million workers, or one-third of our state’s workforce, have no access to paid sick leave. The Washington Work and Family coalition is working to pass paid sick days statewide and ensure that no worker is forced to choose between their health, their family and their paycheck. Support our work today by sharing your story, joining our email list and following us on Facebook and Twitter.

Via Family Values @ Work

Why We Need the FAMILY Act

Jason’s twin children were born at 28 weeks — and as a result, spent 69 days in neonatal intensive care. Thanks to New Jersey’s paid family leave law, Jason and his wife Christie were able to take needed time off to care for their children. But for millions of workers, including one million in Washington alone, paid family leave is not an option. The FAMILY Act would change that.

Most Americans have no access to paid leave when babies are born or serious personal or family medical needs arise, but that will change when Congress passes the Family And Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act. This badly needed legislation was introduced for the first time today by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D – N.Y.) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D – Conn.). It would establish a national paid family and medical leave insurance program, bringing the country’s employment safeguards in line with the needs today’s working families.

Add your voice to the majority of Americans who support paid family and medical leave and urge Congress to pass the FAMILY Act today!

Require paid sick leave for all of N.J.: Editorial

iStock_000007676995MediumA recent editorial from New Jersey’s Star Ledger challenges the state’s political, business and community leaders to stand in support of workers’ most basic rights and pass paid sick leave for all. Washington’s leaders should do the same.

From the folks who brought us voter suppression laws and “stand your ground,” there’s a new movement that paints a target on the little guy: The American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC, is behind several new laws across the country that ban cities and towns from requiring paid sick leave for their private-sector workers.

So far this year, seven states have adopted the pre-emptive paid sick leave bans, bringing the nationwide total to 10. Fourteen other states are considering one. Pennsylvania lawmakers began working on a sick leave ban just last month.

New Jersey has a chance to push back by requiring sick time for every worker in the state. At the moment, public momentum favors workers. In October, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop won mandatory paid sick days in his city. Newark’s city council is considering it. No lawmaker has proposed ALEC’s sick-leave ban in New Jersey — and it’s not likely the bill would get far if they did.

Moreover, New Jersey voters on Election Day overwhelmingly supported raising the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 an hour. The pendulum is swinging toward workers’ rights, not against them.

When Fulop first proposed his city’s sick leave ordinance, he called it “basic human dignity.” It’s also smart health policy. Workers who don’t have access to paid sick days are much more likely to go to work sick, putting co-workers and customers at risk. Sick workers cost roughly $160 billion a year in lost productivity. Meanwhile, paid sick time accounts for less than 1 percent of private-sector payrolls, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And picture this: Seventy-nine percent of food workers — who are especially prone to spreading germs — don’t get paid sick days. Do you want a coughing, contagious waitress handling your food because she’ll be fired if she stays home?

In May, Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden) introduced a bill requiring employers to offer at least 40 paid sick hours a year. It never moved. Neither did its companion bill in the Senate. Both will be reintroduced in January.

The timing is ripe for paid sick leave to become a statewide right in New Jersey, where more than 1.2 million workers don’t get to stay home when they’re under the weather. Catching a cold shouldn’t force the state’s most vulnerable workers to choose between staying healthy and staying employed.