States push laws to require paid sick days
State Legislature mulls bill for 12 weeks of employer-paid leave
HARTFORD, Conn. — For school bus driver Jamille Aine, a cold is more than an inconvenience. His employer does not offer paid sick days, so if he can’t shake the bug, he may not be able to pay his bills.
Some 46 million U. S. workers lack paid sick days, but lawmakers in 12 states — including California, Connecticut, Minnesota and West Virginia — have proposed legislation in the past year that would require businesses to provide them.
Dale Butland of Ohioans for Healthy Families, an advocacy group pushing a November ballot initiative that would require employers to offer paid sick days, said the effort picked up steam in Columbus and other state capitals because federal legislation has stalled.
“This is the next frontier in assuring workplaces are safe,” said Kate Kahan, director of the work and family program at the Washington-based National Partnership for Women & Families, which lobbies on paid sick leave and other workplace and health care issues.
Businesses — especially small companies — argue that forcing them to offer paid sick days hinders their ability to provide a flexible array of benefits, such as a mix of vacation and personal days that also may be used by employees when they are sick. And they say it’s a costly new mandate for businesses already struggling through a contracting economy.
Bills requiring paid sick days were rejected or allowed to die in several state legislatures, including Maine and Connecticut. In several other states — Alaska, Minnesota, Vermont and West
Virginia — legislation failed when lawmakers refused to take up paid sick leave bills before legislative deadlines passed, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families.
In California, legislation passed the Assembly but is dead for the legislative session after being held in a Senate committee. The bill’s author said she plans to reintroduce it next year.
Nearly all large companies already offer paid sick leave to at least some of their workers, but state and federal mandates could require them to expand the benefit.
New York State does not have mandatory paid sick leave. However, the State Legislature is considering the Working Families Time to Care Act. The bill, introduced by Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-New York), Assemblywoman Susan John (D-Rochester) and Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (D-Long Island) would provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a new baby or a newly adopted child, or for a seriously ill family member.
The law is being opposed by business groups, including the National Federation of Independent Business, a small business advocacy group, claiming the it would be too great a burden to very small businesses.
Kahan and other workers’ advocates believe paid sick time should be an employment standard, like the federal minimum wage.
Advocates say the benefit is particularly needed for employees who handle food or work with children.
Aine, who drives Stamford students ages of 3 to 17 to school, cited that as a reason he would like to have the financial flexibility to stay home when he’s sick.
“It’s not just for me, but for the people you drive,” he said.
Proposed federal legislation would provide workers with seven days of paid sick leave a year for employees who work 30 or more hours a week. The benefit would be prorated for part-time workers.
Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, supports the legislation.
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, opposes employer mandates, his campaign said. It did not address the pending federal legislation.
