By Marilyn Watkins
Almost everyone working in Seattle will be guaranteed a few days of sick leave each year starting next September. Mayor McGinn signed Seattle’s Paid Sick and Safe Leave ordinance into law on September 23 in a lively ceremony at Plum Bistro, following an 8-to-1 vote by the City Council.
In addition to improving daily lives in Seattle and surrounding communities, this ordinance will have a powerful impact around the country. People in other cities and states want to use our ordinance as a model for their own. They also want to know how we won council passage despite intense opposition.
The Ordinance is great news for the 190,000 workers who don’t get any paid sick leave now, and for the many additional workers who are penalized if they take the leave they’ve earned. It’s good news for all of us who shop, eat out, or ride the bus – and now risk exposure to illness from people who can’t afford to stay home when sick. It’s good news for all the children whose health and schooling have suffered because their parents can’t get off work to take them to the pediatrician or nurse them through illness.
Paid sick days will help restore economic security to working families, reclaim the dignity of labor, and rebuild the middle class.
PSARA members helped win this historic victory. Without the outpouring of e-mails and phone calls, and the standing-room only crowds at hearings and forums, the City Council would have followed the road urged by the Chamber of Commerce – delaying action until we just gave up.
Seattle’s ordinance covers most of the half million workers within the city limits. Starting in September 2012, companies with the equivalent of 5 to 49 full-time workers must allow workers to earn up to 5 paid sick days, firms with 50 to 249 must provide 7 days, and larger firms 9 days. Companies are free to provide leave as flexible-use paid time off (PTO), so long as the leave can be used as needed for the health needs of the worker or close family members, or to deal with consequences of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Large firms, if they do use PTO, must provide at least 13.5 days.
Key to our success was collaborating from the beginning with small business owners on designing the policy. People like Makini Howell, owner of Plum Bistro and Jody Hall, owner of Cupcake Royale, became vocal advocates. These small employers and many others like them are organized into the Main Street Alliance, a new, more progressive association of small business owners. While the Main Street Alliance did not take a position on the Paid Sick Days ordinance, a number of the small business owners within the Alliance supported the ordinance.
Working people and seniors also turned out in force and spoke about the real cost of being forced to choose between taking care of health needs or paying the bills. And we had staunch champions on the City Council, especially in Nick Licata and Jean Godden. In the end, only Richard Conlin voted no.
We succeeded because we listened to each other and worked together – and because people who usually don’t have much say in policymaking had a chance to participate here. We can all be proud both of passing good groundbreaking policy and of demonstrating democracy at its best.
Showing posts with label sick leave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sick leave. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Paid sick days: Their time has come
By Aaron Keating
Imagine waking up with the flu and choosing between going to work sick, or staying home and losing a day’s pay – or worse, your job.
For 190,000 people working in Seattle without paid sick days – many in restaurants and hotels, medical centers and long-term care facilities, even grocery stores – that’s a daily reality.
When a child is sick at school, parents shouldn’t have to worry about getting a negative performance review for leaving work to take them home. Nor should someone lose half a day’s pay to take their elderly parent to the doctor. That’s why I’m proud the Seattle City Council is considering a paid sick days ordinance to ensure people have paid sick days on the job.
More than 30 local businesses and 75+ community organizations worked together to get the ordinance introduced and passed unanimously out of committee. But now, a handful of corporate interests have emerged to oppose this common sense public health and family measure. They’re working to water down it with special exemptions and administrative barriers.
Help make sure every Seattle City Council member gets the message: “Paid sick days mean healthy, responsible prevention – don’t water it down!” Meet on the plaza outside City Hall at 1:45 p.m. on Monday, September 12; we’ll walk up the stairs together to Council Chambers for the 2 p.m. meeting and vote (600 Fourth Ave. 2nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98104). We’ll have signs and stickers – we just need you!
I have a personal reason to support this ordinance: I’m the proud father of a 12-week old baby girl. You can guess I’ve had my share of sleepless nights – but it’s helped me realize how lucky I am.
Growing up, while my father worked full-time as an elementary school teacher, my mother did part-time accounting work, often from home. So when I got pneumonia and missed a week of kindergarten, she could stay home with me. Same when my brother got the chickenpox.
Like a lot of families today, my wife and I can’t afford to work part-time. But we’re lucky: both of our employers provide paid sick days. So when one of us takes our daughter to see our pediatrician, we don’t risk losing part of our paycheck – or worse, our job.
But the way I see it, luck shouldn’t determine whether you can take responsibility for your own and your family’s health. The flu and other illnesses spread quickly in our schools, workplaces, and retirement facilities. And if Seattleites can build software and airplanes for the world, we can certainly ensure everyone can work healthy and care for their families.
If you can’t come to the Council meeting to support the paid sick days ordinance, please email council@seattle.gov or send your letter of support to: Seattle City Council, PO Box 34025, Seattle, WA 98124-4025. Learn more at www.seattlehealthyworkforce.org.
Aaron Keating is a PSARA member and is Operations Director at the Economic Opportunity Institute
Friday, June 3, 2011
PAID SICK DAYS, A PSARA ISSUE
By Robby Stern
PSARA strongly supports the enactment of an ordinance mandating a minimum standard for paid sick days in Seattle. Here are the reasons why.
During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the key public health message was “stay home when you’re sick.” Some were able to heed that message, but many others were not. The H1N1 virus spread in work places and schools as children were sent to school sick because their parents could not afford to take time off work without pay.
The Economic Opportunity Institute (EOI), reports that four in ten Seattle workers get no sick leave, among them thousands of restaurant, grocery, and health care workers who are on the front lines of food safety and public health. In all, an estimated 190,000 Seattle workers have no paid sick days.
Quoting from the EOI Report:
“Food borne illness has a major impact on health and the economy in the United States. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year one out of six Americans gets sick from food, resulting in 125,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. About 20 percent of cases can be traced to an ill food worker. Elderly people are particularly vulnerable to food borne illnesses such as norovirus … The CDC estimates there are more than 21 million annual cases of norovirus, and half of all cases of food-borne illness in the U.S. can be attributed to norovirus infection. Norovirus symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, cramping and fever…Of the cases analyzed by the CDC from July 1997 to June 2000, 57% were caused by food, which most often became contaminated by an infected food handler immediately prior to consumption.”
The CDC advises that the measures most likely to significantly reduce the incidence of norovirus are “correct handling of cold foods, frequent hand washing, and provision of paid sick leave...” The King County Public Health Department strongly supports a paid sick days ordinance.
Since most restaurants do not offer paid sick time, ill employees are forced to choose between taking unpaid leave or going to work sick. A recent report in the Journal of Food Protection found that, in the past year, 19.8 percent had worked while experiencing vomiting or diarrhea. Another survey of more than 4,300 U.S. restaurant workers in eight metropolitan regions of the U.S. found that 88 percent did not receive paid sick time and that 63 percent had worked serving or preparing food while sick.
Access to paid sick days is unequal. Eighty percent of people earning above the median hourly wage get paid sick days; only 19 percent of the bottom 10 percent wage earners receive paid sick days. Women are far more likely than men not to have paid sick days. Latinos and African Americans are also less likely to have paid sick days.
My wife is a school nurse in a school with a high percentage of lower income families. She frequently tells me of children being sent to school with fevers, or children getting sick at school. When she calls the parents, all too often they are unable to pick up their children. Another frequent phenomenon is older siblings missing a day of school because they have to stay home with a younger sister or brother who is too sick to go to school.
Elderly people are particularly vulnerable to the spread of viruses and infections. The well-publicized growth in resistance of infections to antibiotics makes the spread of diseases even more dangerous for all of us, but particularly for seniors. The realization that people who handle our food in the grocery stores and people who help us care for ourselves often do not have access to paid sick days makes the need for a minimum standard even more apparent.
Although some employers support the establishment of a paid sick days standard, very powerful forces are lined up against it. The same business associations who declared the sky was falling when they opposed the 1998 minimum wage standard are now contending that a paid sick days standard will ruin businesses in Seattle. The Seattle Times, using the term “nanny government,” has announced its opposition. Opponents’ economic arguments are countered by the fact that San Francisco has had a similar standard for four years and has seen an increase in employment.
Several Seattle City Council members who greeted the proponents of the ordinance with expressions of support may now be getting cold feet and seeking to delay consideration of the ordinance.
Kudos go to Councilmembers (and PSARA members) Nick Licata, sponsor of the ordinance, and Jean Godden, co-sponsor. Councilmember Bruce Harrell (not yet a PSARA member) has also agreed to co-sponsor the ordinance. These councilmembers are supporting immediate consideration and passage of the ordinance.
Some have said this should not be a “campaign” issue. Well, it IS a campaign issue. We’ll be calling on our members to attend various actions and hearings to express your support for a minimum paid sick days standard. We will also let you know where all council members and Mayor McGinn stand on the issue.
This ordinance will protect our parents, children and grandchildren. It is good for our community. We’ll be calling on you for help to establish paid sick days in the city of Seattle.
PSARA strongly supports the enactment of an ordinance mandating a minimum standard for paid sick days in Seattle. Here are the reasons why.
During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the key public health message was “stay home when you’re sick.” Some were able to heed that message, but many others were not. The H1N1 virus spread in work places and schools as children were sent to school sick because their parents could not afford to take time off work without pay.
The Economic Opportunity Institute (EOI), reports that four in ten Seattle workers get no sick leave, among them thousands of restaurant, grocery, and health care workers who are on the front lines of food safety and public health. In all, an estimated 190,000 Seattle workers have no paid sick days.
Quoting from the EOI Report:
“Food borne illness has a major impact on health and the economy in the United States. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year one out of six Americans gets sick from food, resulting in 125,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. About 20 percent of cases can be traced to an ill food worker. Elderly people are particularly vulnerable to food borne illnesses such as norovirus … The CDC estimates there are more than 21 million annual cases of norovirus, and half of all cases of food-borne illness in the U.S. can be attributed to norovirus infection. Norovirus symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, cramping and fever…Of the cases analyzed by the CDC from July 1997 to June 2000, 57% were caused by food, which most often became contaminated by an infected food handler immediately prior to consumption.”
The CDC advises that the measures most likely to significantly reduce the incidence of norovirus are “correct handling of cold foods, frequent hand washing, and provision of paid sick leave...” The King County Public Health Department strongly supports a paid sick days ordinance.
Since most restaurants do not offer paid sick time, ill employees are forced to choose between taking unpaid leave or going to work sick. A recent report in the Journal of Food Protection found that, in the past year, 19.8 percent had worked while experiencing vomiting or diarrhea. Another survey of more than 4,300 U.S. restaurant workers in eight metropolitan regions of the U.S. found that 88 percent did not receive paid sick time and that 63 percent had worked serving or preparing food while sick.
Access to paid sick days is unequal. Eighty percent of people earning above the median hourly wage get paid sick days; only 19 percent of the bottom 10 percent wage earners receive paid sick days. Women are far more likely than men not to have paid sick days. Latinos and African Americans are also less likely to have paid sick days.
My wife is a school nurse in a school with a high percentage of lower income families. She frequently tells me of children being sent to school with fevers, or children getting sick at school. When she calls the parents, all too often they are unable to pick up their children. Another frequent phenomenon is older siblings missing a day of school because they have to stay home with a younger sister or brother who is too sick to go to school.
Elderly people are particularly vulnerable to the spread of viruses and infections. The well-publicized growth in resistance of infections to antibiotics makes the spread of diseases even more dangerous for all of us, but particularly for seniors. The realization that people who handle our food in the grocery stores and people who help us care for ourselves often do not have access to paid sick days makes the need for a minimum standard even more apparent.
Although some employers support the establishment of a paid sick days standard, very powerful forces are lined up against it. The same business associations who declared the sky was falling when they opposed the 1998 minimum wage standard are now contending that a paid sick days standard will ruin businesses in Seattle. The Seattle Times, using the term “nanny government,” has announced its opposition. Opponents’ economic arguments are countered by the fact that San Francisco has had a similar standard for four years and has seen an increase in employment.
Several Seattle City Council members who greeted the proponents of the ordinance with expressions of support may now be getting cold feet and seeking to delay consideration of the ordinance.
Kudos go to Councilmembers (and PSARA members) Nick Licata, sponsor of the ordinance, and Jean Godden, co-sponsor. Councilmember Bruce Harrell (not yet a PSARA member) has also agreed to co-sponsor the ordinance. These councilmembers are supporting immediate consideration and passage of the ordinance.
Some have said this should not be a “campaign” issue. Well, it IS a campaign issue. We’ll be calling on our members to attend various actions and hearings to express your support for a minimum paid sick days standard. We will also let you know where all council members and Mayor McGinn stand on the issue.
This ordinance will protect our parents, children and grandchildren. It is good for our community. We’ll be calling on you for help to establish paid sick days in the city of Seattle.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Just around the corner: A healthier Seattle
By Marilyn Watkins
When we go out for a meal or shop for groceries, none of us wants to come home with stomach flu. Yet most of the employees we encounter in restaurants, and far too many working in retail and healthcare, don’t get any paid sick leave.
That’s why PSARA has joined a growing number of organizations in the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce to urge the Seattle City Council to adopt a new minimum standard for paid sick days, modeled after laws already on the books in San Francisco and Milwaukee.
Four of every ten Seattle workers have no paid sick leave. Many of them earn lower wages and have no cushion in the family budget. If they get sick, they have to make the hard choice – either go to work or lose a day’s pay.
Some workers have restrictions on their paid leave that put them in the same boat. Many grocery and hospital employees around Seattle don’t get paid leave until they have been out for three days. Workers also may have every absence count against them when it comes to evaluations, promotions – and keeping their jobs.
The public health risks to seniors and other vulnerable populations are obvious. But the negative consequences extend throughout society. Children whose parents don’t have paid sick leave are in poorer health and don’t do as well as more fortunate kids in school. They can’t go to the pediatrician during normal business hours. They get sent to school sick more often. Older kids are kept home from school to care for sick younger siblings.
In San Francisco, where minimum paid sick time standards have been in effect for more than four years, data show businesses thrive when their workers are healthy. San Francisco has had a stronger jobs picture than the surrounding counties and the state of California in every year since the ordinance passed, including in restaurants, the industry least likely to have offered paid leave previously. And even though many business owners initially opposed the ordinance, a recent survey shows two thirds now support it, while the vast majority say it has had no negative impact on profits.
Fortunately, here in Seattle a number of small business owners are stepping up to provide paid leave ahead of the ordinance, including Tutta Bella, Molly Moon’s Ice Cream, Plum Bistro, Sage, Herban Feast, the Salvadoran Bakery, and Girlie Press.
We know that other less responsible business interests will strongly pressure council members to oppose the Paid Sick Days ordinance. PSARA members can help overcome that opposition and pass paid sick days by:
1. Attending the campaign kick off on May 11, 5:00-7:00 at University Christian Church.
2. Writing a postcard telling why paid sick days is important to you, and helping distribute postcards to your friends and neighbors. We plan to deliver thousands of postcards to council members in early June.
3. Patronizing our business supporters and thanking them for promoting a healthier Seattle!
4. Turning out for City Council hearings and votes in June and July (dates and times to be announced).
5. Visiting the coalition website http://seattlehealthyworkforce.org/ often to learn about the latest events and actions.
----------------------
Marilyn Watkins is Policy Director for the Economic Policy Institute and a member of PSARA.
When we go out for a meal or shop for groceries, none of us wants to come home with stomach flu. Yet most of the employees we encounter in restaurants, and far too many working in retail and healthcare, don’t get any paid sick leave.
That’s why PSARA has joined a growing number of organizations in the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce to urge the Seattle City Council to adopt a new minimum standard for paid sick days, modeled after laws already on the books in San Francisco and Milwaukee.
Four of every ten Seattle workers have no paid sick leave. Many of them earn lower wages and have no cushion in the family budget. If they get sick, they have to make the hard choice – either go to work or lose a day’s pay.
Some workers have restrictions on their paid leave that put them in the same boat. Many grocery and hospital employees around Seattle don’t get paid leave until they have been out for three days. Workers also may have every absence count against them when it comes to evaluations, promotions – and keeping their jobs.
The public health risks to seniors and other vulnerable populations are obvious. But the negative consequences extend throughout society. Children whose parents don’t have paid sick leave are in poorer health and don’t do as well as more fortunate kids in school. They can’t go to the pediatrician during normal business hours. They get sent to school sick more often. Older kids are kept home from school to care for sick younger siblings.
In San Francisco, where minimum paid sick time standards have been in effect for more than four years, data show businesses thrive when their workers are healthy. San Francisco has had a stronger jobs picture than the surrounding counties and the state of California in every year since the ordinance passed, including in restaurants, the industry least likely to have offered paid leave previously. And even though many business owners initially opposed the ordinance, a recent survey shows two thirds now support it, while the vast majority say it has had no negative impact on profits.
Fortunately, here in Seattle a number of small business owners are stepping up to provide paid leave ahead of the ordinance, including Tutta Bella, Molly Moon’s Ice Cream, Plum Bistro, Sage, Herban Feast, the Salvadoran Bakery, and Girlie Press.
We know that other less responsible business interests will strongly pressure council members to oppose the Paid Sick Days ordinance. PSARA members can help overcome that opposition and pass paid sick days by:
1. Attending the campaign kick off on May 11, 5:00-7:00 at University Christian Church.
2. Writing a postcard telling why paid sick days is important to you, and helping distribute postcards to your friends and neighbors. We plan to deliver thousands of postcards to council members in early June.
3. Patronizing our business supporters and thanking them for promoting a healthier Seattle!
4. Turning out for City Council hearings and votes in June and July (dates and times to be announced).
5. Visiting the coalition website http://seattlehealthyworkforce.org/ often to learn about the latest events and actions.
----------------------
Marilyn Watkins is Policy Director for the Economic Policy Institute and a member of PSARA.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Paid sick days for a healthy Tacoma
The Coalition for a Healthy Tacoma is campaigning for paid sick days for the 41,000 of the city’s workers who currently lack that basic protection.
The coalition reports that 78 percent of Tacoma’s restaurant workers, 55 percent of its retail workers, and even 29 percent of its health care workers have no paid sick days. That means they either go to work sick, or stay home and lose pay – or even face discipline for absenteeism.
It’s a public health issue as well. Sneezing, coughing workers spread disease. Paid sick days protect the entire community.
The plan would provide one hour paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Workers in small companies could accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick time; those in larger companies, up to 72 hours.
The coalition reports that 78 percent of Tacoma’s restaurant workers, 55 percent of its retail workers, and even 29 percent of its health care workers have no paid sick days. That means they either go to work sick, or stay home and lose pay – or even face discipline for absenteeism.
It’s a public health issue as well. Sneezing, coughing workers spread disease. Paid sick days protect the entire community.
The plan would provide one hour paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Workers in small companies could accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick time; those in larger companies, up to 72 hours.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Sick Days for All Workers
New coalition aims for a healthier Seattle through paid sick days for all workers
By Alex Stone
It should be as fundamental a standard as the minimum wage and the 40-hour work week. Yet one million Washington workers can’t take a single paid day off from work when they – or their children or their elderly parents – get sick.
Among them is Amber, a 22 year old Seattle-area mother with a 3 year old son. Amber’s current job as a kitchen staffer doesn’t offer her paid time off to care for her son when he gets sick. “When my son was sick, I had to call in sick because he couldn’t go to daycare,” Amber says. “I had to take two days off without pay and I regretted it because I have bills to pay and now I am behind”.
Amber’s story is commonplace in the food service industry, where just 16% of employers offer full-time workers paid sick days, and only 2% offer them to part-time employees. It's no wonder nearly half of "stomach flu" related outbreaks are linked to ill food service workers.
According to the most recent national data, 38% of all workers and two-thirds of the lowest-paid 25% have no paid sick leave. And some grocery and hospital workers – who in theory get sick leave – have to be out two or three days without pay before they can take it.
In 2006, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to adopt minimum paid sick days standards. The law allows all workers in the city to accrue paid sick days – up to 5 days in businesses with fewer than 10 employees and 9 days in larger companies. Since then, both Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee, WI have adopted, but not yet fully implemented, similar measures. New York City and Philadelphia have active campaigns, and a paid sick days bill is before Congress.
The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce is laying the groundwork for paid sick days legislation here by organizing a broad coalition of businesses, community organizations and individuals who support paid sick days for Seattle workers.
A citywide paid sick days standard will benefit public health, allowing workers like Amber to stay home when she or her son get sick. It will promote family economic security by ensuring workers and their families can care for basic health care needs without jeopardizing a day’s wages. It will create healthier workplaces, hospitals, and childcare facilities by limiting the spread of disease. It will lower health care costs by enabling workers to seek preventive care for themselves and their loved ones. Business owners who provide paid sick leave have found that morale, productivity, and customer satisfaction all go up.
There are millions of stories just like Amber’s. Do you have one? Please share it on the Seattle Healthy Workforce website, Help Seattle join other cities in caring for working families. Visit http://seattlehealthyworkforce.org/ to learn more.
(Alex Stone is Communication Manager for the Economic Opportunity Institute.)
By Alex Stone
It should be as fundamental a standard as the minimum wage and the 40-hour work week. Yet one million Washington workers can’t take a single paid day off from work when they – or their children or their elderly parents – get sick.
Among them is Amber, a 22 year old Seattle-area mother with a 3 year old son. Amber’s current job as a kitchen staffer doesn’t offer her paid time off to care for her son when he gets sick. “When my son was sick, I had to call in sick because he couldn’t go to daycare,” Amber says. “I had to take two days off without pay and I regretted it because I have bills to pay and now I am behind”.
Amber’s story is commonplace in the food service industry, where just 16% of employers offer full-time workers paid sick days, and only 2% offer them to part-time employees. It's no wonder nearly half of "stomach flu" related outbreaks are linked to ill food service workers.
According to the most recent national data, 38% of all workers and two-thirds of the lowest-paid 25% have no paid sick leave. And some grocery and hospital workers – who in theory get sick leave – have to be out two or three days without pay before they can take it.
In 2006, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to adopt minimum paid sick days standards. The law allows all workers in the city to accrue paid sick days – up to 5 days in businesses with fewer than 10 employees and 9 days in larger companies. Since then, both Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee, WI have adopted, but not yet fully implemented, similar measures. New York City and Philadelphia have active campaigns, and a paid sick days bill is before Congress.
The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce is laying the groundwork for paid sick days legislation here by organizing a broad coalition of businesses, community organizations and individuals who support paid sick days for Seattle workers.
A citywide paid sick days standard will benefit public health, allowing workers like Amber to stay home when she or her son get sick. It will promote family economic security by ensuring workers and their families can care for basic health care needs without jeopardizing a day’s wages. It will create healthier workplaces, hospitals, and childcare facilities by limiting the spread of disease. It will lower health care costs by enabling workers to seek preventive care for themselves and their loved ones. Business owners who provide paid sick leave have found that morale, productivity, and customer satisfaction all go up.
There are millions of stories just like Amber’s. Do you have one? Please share it on the Seattle Healthy Workforce website, Help Seattle join other cities in caring for working families. Visit http://seattlehealthyworkforce.org/ to learn more.
(Alex Stone is Communication Manager for the Economic Opportunity Institute.)
Sunday, June 6, 2010
A million workers with no sick leave
By Marilyn Watkins, Ph. D.
Megan, a server at a Tacoma restaurant, was fired because she had the flu. When she tried to call in sick, her supervisor told her the restaurant was busy and she had to come in. When she did, one of her customers complained to the health department. Three weeks later, Megan was fired. Now she works at a bar – and still doesn’t have sick leave.
Stories like Megan’s are all too common. While many union members and white collar employees enjoy benefits, 42% of the workforce – 190,000 workers in Seattle and more than one million in Washington State – do not have any paid sick days. Only 12% of restaurants provide sick leave to full-time employees, and only 4% to part-timers. Low-wage workers are the least likely to receive benefits, the least able to afford unpaid time off, and the most vulnerable to retaliation if forced to miss work.
Even some workers who in theory have sick leave are strongly discouraged from using it. For example, many grocery and hospital employees don’t get paid leave until the third day they are out – and they get demerits for every day they call in sick.
In times of pandemics like H1N1, the lack of across-the-board standards for paid sick days is a clear public health problem. But we’re all at risk when workers who handle our food and care for the most vulnerable are forced to be on the job sick with any communicable disease.
Studies show that children recover more quickly from illness and do better in school when their parents have paid leave. Ailing seniors suffer when their working adult children can’t use paid sick days to care for them and help them get to the doctor.
Three U.S. cities have led the way in adopting minimum standards for paid sick days. San Francisco and Milwaukee passed initiatives with 61% and 69% of the vote, respectively, and Washington, D.C.’s council adopted a similar statute. Coalitions across the country have introduced bills in city councils and state legislatures, The Healthy Families Act, now before Congress, would establish a national standard.
More than three years’ experience in San Francisco has shown that businesses as well as families prosper when employers are required to provide paid sick days. In San Francisco all employees must accrue at least an hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours for the very smallest companies and up to 72 hours in firms with at least 10 employees. That results in higher morale, less spread of disease among coworkers, and better customer satisfaction. Jobs – including restaurant jobs – grew faster in San Francisco than in the surrounding counties or state as a whole in the two years following adoption of paid sick days. Jobs shrank less in that city during the deep recession year of 2009.
The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce is working to make Seattle the next city to adopt paid sick days. The Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans has joined with other labor, senior, women’s, faith, employer, and community groups to endorse the campaign. A similar coalition, Healthy Tacoma, is organizing in our sister city.
Contact Lily at 206-465-4835 or lilymadeline@yahoo.com for more information – and to get involved. No one should be fired for having the flu. No one should have to risk being fired for taking their mother to the doctor.
(Marilyn Watkins is Policy Director with the Economic Opportunity Institute.)
Megan, a server at a Tacoma restaurant, was fired because she had the flu. When she tried to call in sick, her supervisor told her the restaurant was busy and she had to come in. When she did, one of her customers complained to the health department. Three weeks later, Megan was fired. Now she works at a bar – and still doesn’t have sick leave.
Stories like Megan’s are all too common. While many union members and white collar employees enjoy benefits, 42% of the workforce – 190,000 workers in Seattle and more than one million in Washington State – do not have any paid sick days. Only 12% of restaurants provide sick leave to full-time employees, and only 4% to part-timers. Low-wage workers are the least likely to receive benefits, the least able to afford unpaid time off, and the most vulnerable to retaliation if forced to miss work.
Even some workers who in theory have sick leave are strongly discouraged from using it. For example, many grocery and hospital employees don’t get paid leave until the third day they are out – and they get demerits for every day they call in sick.
In times of pandemics like H1N1, the lack of across-the-board standards for paid sick days is a clear public health problem. But we’re all at risk when workers who handle our food and care for the most vulnerable are forced to be on the job sick with any communicable disease.
Studies show that children recover more quickly from illness and do better in school when their parents have paid leave. Ailing seniors suffer when their working adult children can’t use paid sick days to care for them and help them get to the doctor.
Three U.S. cities have led the way in adopting minimum standards for paid sick days. San Francisco and Milwaukee passed initiatives with 61% and 69% of the vote, respectively, and Washington, D.C.’s council adopted a similar statute. Coalitions across the country have introduced bills in city councils and state legislatures, The Healthy Families Act, now before Congress, would establish a national standard.
More than three years’ experience in San Francisco has shown that businesses as well as families prosper when employers are required to provide paid sick days. In San Francisco all employees must accrue at least an hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours for the very smallest companies and up to 72 hours in firms with at least 10 employees. That results in higher morale, less spread of disease among coworkers, and better customer satisfaction. Jobs – including restaurant jobs – grew faster in San Francisco than in the surrounding counties or state as a whole in the two years following adoption of paid sick days. Jobs shrank less in that city during the deep recession year of 2009.
The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce is working to make Seattle the next city to adopt paid sick days. The Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans has joined with other labor, senior, women’s, faith, employer, and community groups to endorse the campaign. A similar coalition, Healthy Tacoma, is organizing in our sister city.
Contact Lily at 206-465-4835 or lilymadeline@yahoo.com for more information – and to get involved. No one should be fired for having the flu. No one should have to risk being fired for taking their mother to the doctor.
(Marilyn Watkins is Policy Director with the Economic Opportunity Institute.)
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