Big efforts are underway in Vermont, Maryland and the city of Minneapolis to force bosses to give sick days to employees, in the hope of creating momentum as federal action lags.
Federal law does not require employers to provide sick leave for their workers. President Obama has tried to draw attention to the topic, issuing an order last year that requires all federal contractors to provide paid sick leave.
But businesses say such a policy could harm their finances. Advocates counter it can lead to a more productive and healthier workforce.
The National Partnership for Women and Families, a nonprofit advocacy group, said having paid sick days will ensure that workers stay home when they are sick and don’t spread contagious diseases. The group also points to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that found workers who earn paid sick days are 28 percent less likely than workers who don’t to be injured on the job.
The Healthy Families Act, which would mandate paid sick days, was introduced in the House and Senate last year, but it has not advanced. So advocates are pushing for more states and cities to take up the measure.
Four states have paid sick leave laws: Connecticut, Oregon, California and Massachusetts. And about 10 cities have such laws, including Oakland, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.
Each of the laws has certain provisions about who is covered. For instance, in California, the law applies to people employed for 30 or more days a year. The law requires employers to offer an accrual plan in which workers earn at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours of work.
California also allows cities to go beyond the state law, hence the provisions in Oakland and San Francisco.
Advocates hope to add Vermont and Maryland to the list this year. Montgomery County in Maryland passed a sick leave law last year.
“The campaigns that have been most successful are those that build broad coalitions,” said Vicki Shabo, vice president for the partnership. The group helps local and state leaders with their campaigns for paid leave.
Shabo said coalitions of women’s and children’s public health groups, labor and business groups are recipes for success.
Maryland is attempting for the second time to get paid sick leave after falling short last year. Lawmakers filed the bill Feb. 2 in the General Assembly. An advocacy campaign already is working to push the policy through a coalition of 150 organizations called Working Matters that include local unions, health groups and the U.S Women’s Chamber of Commerce.
State legislators have reached out to businesses to get their take, said Del. Luke Clippinger, who is behind the House bill, which has more than 80 co-sponsors.
Business groups “wanted something clearly in the law that says if they have an existing sick time policy they didn’t have to create anything new just for this,” he told the Washington Examiner. “As long as the sick time policy had the same guidelines, that would be perfectly fine.”
Shabo said getting businesses on board is important as some say the laws could harm them, and harm workers.
Her group points to evidence sick leave laws haven’t caused financial hardships for businesses. For instance, San Francisco passed a law in 2007 and employment in the city increased 3.5 percent from 2006 to 2010, the group said.
Other states’ lawmakers trying to get paid sick leave approved aren’t having much luck.
In Virginia, a bill introduced last month that would have required employers with 25 or more workers to provide sick days already died in committee.
