Recent State Success
States are stepping up to the plate to protect workers as they care for sick family members. Maine enacted the Family Care Act [1] in 2005 with help from the Maine Women's Lobby [2]. The new law requires employers with 25 or more employees and who provide sick days to allow employees to use them to care for a sick dependent. Similar laws have been enacted in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin.
Massachusetts legislative leaders have sponsored SB 1130 [3] and HB 3788 [4] which would require a minimum of 7 paid sick days per year for all workers.
Talking Points
- 68% of working-class families have two weeks or less of combined vacation and sick leave. 70% of parents face losing income or even losing jobs every time they leave work to care for a sick child.
- Paid sick leave is good for workers and it is good business. Sick leave helps workers regain their health, return to full productivity quicker, and avoid making other workers sick. This reduces employers' overall absence expense.
- Children get well faster when parents can stay home to care for them. This is crucial because most child care centers don't allow children to attend when they are sick. Those that do allow sick children risk spreading contagions to other children and their families.
Legislative Models
- Progressive States Network: Open Flexible Work - model legislation, research, analysis, talking points [5]
- San Francisco: Requiring Employers to provide paid sick leave to employees [6]
- California: California Labor Code [7]
- Madison, WI: Minimum Mandatory Sick Leave [8]
- Wisconsin: Minimum Paid Family and Sick Leave [9]
- Maine: LD 1044, An Act to Care for Families [1]
- Massachusetts: SB 1130, An Act Establishing Paid Sick Days [3]
- Oregon: Family Leave [10]
- Vermont: H839, An Act Relating to Paid Sick Days [11]
- Federal Legislation: S1085Healthy Families Act [12]
Research and Reports
- Progressive States Network: Open Flexible Work - model legislation, research, analysis, talking points [5]
- Community Service Society of New York: The Unheard 3rd - survey of low income workers and their need for paid sick days [13]
- 9to5, National Association of Working Women: 10 Things That Could Happen to You if You Didn't Have Paid Sick Days [14]
- Institute for Women's Policy Research: No Time to Be Sick [15]
- Center for Law and Social Policy: Paid Sick Days Legislation - A Legislator's Guide [16]
- American University Washington College of Law: Working Time for Working Families: Europe and the United States [17]
- New America Foundation: Helping America's Working Parents: What We Can Learn From Europe & Canada [18]
- Center for American Progress:
- Paid Sick Days Would Help Both Employees and Employers [19]
Organizations
- Progressive States Network [20]
- ACORN - Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now [21]
- National Partnership for Women and Families [22]
- MomsRising [23]
- 9to5, National Assocaition of Working Women [24]
- Institute for Women's Policy Research [25]
- Center for Law and Social Policy [26]
- Women Legislators' Lobby [27]
- Center for Community Change, The Mobility Agenda [28]
- DC Economic Justice Center [27]
- Community Service Society of New York [29]
- San Francisco Coalition for Paid Sick Days [30]
- Women Employed [31]