This one is huge — the council is slated to take a vote on Paid Sick Days at 2:00 pm following our rally.
However, there are some members who’ve been hearing from business chamber opponents that they need to kill the ordinance by delaying a vote. We can’t let that happen.
Meet us on the plaza outside City Council at 1:30 PM, then walk with us into the building for the 2:00 PM Council vote. The more of us there are urging for a vote, the less likely they are to delay the process.
City Councilmember Licata released the following statement today on a letter received from the state’s leading economists on the merits of paid sick leave legislation:
“Our state’s prominent economists today sent a letter to the City Council supporting the proposed paid sick leave ordinance that I am sponsoring. The bill promotes healthy work environments by establishing standards for paid sick days, ensuring that employers provide a minimum amount of paid time off for employees to take care of themselves or their sick family members. Seattle’s proposal includes feedback from key stakeholders and business leaders and is infused best practices from Milwaukee, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., cities that have already enacted similar legislation.
“As the letter states, ‘When the City of San Francisco enacted its Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (PSLO), critics there raised many of the same concerns that lobbyists have raised in Seattle. Four years later, the number of small and large businesses in the city has grown — and growth in the city has been stronger than in the surrounding five counties with no paid sick leave laws.’
“Right now, nearly 40 percent of Seattle’s workers, filling an estimated 190,000 jobs, have no paid sick days. That means many of these workers come to work sick rather than lose their job or a day’s wage – and that puts the public’s health at risk. We must act now to provide paid sick days. This legislation strives to reduce the serious and costly public health threat created by people coming to work sick, reduces employee turnover and replacement costs, and increases employee productivity.”
On Wednesday, August 10, the Housing, Human Services, Health, and Culture Committee will discuss and vote on the proposed paid sick leave Ordinance 117216, sponsored by Councilmember Licata.
I’m the proud father of a 6-week old baby girl. As you can imagine, I’ve had my share of sleepless nights recently – but it’s helped me realize how lucky I am.
Annie, Aaron and baby Ruby
Growing up, my dad worked full-time as an elementary school teacher, and my mom did part-time accounting work, often from home. So when I got pneumonia and was out of kindergarten for a week, she was able to stay home with me. Same deal when my brother got the chickenpox.
Like a lot of families today, my wife and I can’t afford for either of us to work part-time. But fortunately, both of our employers provide paid sick days. When we had to take our baby daughter to Urgent Care a couple of weeks ago, we didn’t risk losing a day’s pay – or worse, one of our jobs.
This one is huge — the council is slated to take a vote on Paid Sick Days at 2:00 pm following our rally.
Washington Work and Family Coalition 