Momentum Builds for Guaranteed Paid Sick Days Legislation
By David Moberg
In These Times
Jul 13, 2011
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11640/momentum_builds_for_guaranteed_paid_sick_days_legislation/

Buoyed by Connecticut's enactment this month of the
nation's first state law guaranteeing paid sick days to
most workers, more than 200 organizers for paid family
leave and paid sick days pushed for national legislation
this week as they gathered in Washington, D.C.

Their movement is picking up steam, despite the
obstacles in Congress and in many states to passing any
legislation helping workers. The organizers, most linked
to either Family Values @ Work or the National
Partnership for Women and Families, came from 23 states
and the District of Columbia. Though success with
federal legislation in this Congress is unlikely, they
anticipate passage of paid sick day legislation in the
coming months in Seattle, Denver, New York City, and
possibly both Massachusetts and, in a weak form,
Georgia.

The failure of many employers to provide paid sick days,
and the failure of the country, alone among advanced
industrial countries, to mandate such protection causes
great personal hardship. Torrie Moffett of Milwaukee,
for example, lost four jobs in five years because she
had to take time off to address school problems of her
mentally ill child. None of her employers paid for sick
leave or protected workers against dismissal for taking
days off for sickness, as much of the new legislation
mandates.

New research by the Institute for Women's Policy
Research indicates that even at workplaces with paid
sick days, nearly half of workers report that management
has policies that could lead to dismissal for taking too
many sick days.

Workers without paid sick days often simply can't afford
to take time off even when they are ill, often with
contagious diseases they could spread to co-workers or
customers and clients, according to a June report from
the Economic Policy Institute. Just missing three days
from illness in one month, an average worker without
paid leave-making $10 an hour-would be on the verge of
falling below the poverty line, EPI reports.

Paid leave is good not just for workers, says Ellen
Bravo, executive director of Family Values @ Work, but
also for the economy as a whole and even for employers.
Studies of San Francisco after several years of mandated
paid sick days shoed that six out o seven employers
reported no problems and job growth was faster than in
five surrounding counties, Bravo says. And
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm, ranked the
city the third best for business. Employers benefit by
keeping skilled staff.

Instead of such regulation killing jobs, Bravo says,
research shows that paid sick days lead to job retention
and stability, particularly important in an economic
recovery. "The jobs killer," Bravo argues, "is lack of
paid sick days." Both paid sick days and, to a slightly
lesser degree, paid family and medical leave, score
strong public support in polls, typically at or above 60
to 70 percent approval of legislation setting such
standards. For example, in a 2010 National Opinion
Research Center survey, 75 percent of those polled
supported a mandate for a minimum number of paid sick
days, with 61 percent strongly supporting it.

That makes it a bit easier for core advocate groups,
like women's, public health and labor organizations, to
build the broader coalitions-including many business
owners-that have so far been the key to legislative
victories. Newly proposed federal legislation would
guarantee up to seven days of paid sick time for all
employers of 15 or more workers. Other legislation would
set up an insurance fund financed by payments from
employers and employees to compensate for family and
medical leave.

High-earning workers and public-sector workers are more
likely to have some protection now than low-wage private
sector workers, but legal guarantees can reinforce those
policies.

Also, Bravo says, "You may have paid sick days, but when
you go to a restaurant, you don't want to be served flu
with your fries. Everyone has a stake in it."

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