It comes as little surprise that paid sick days have received overwhelming public support in Seattle. But until now, it’s been difficult to say with precision just how strong that support really is.

Released today, a poll conducted in late August shows more than two-thirds of likely Seattle voters favor the Paid Sick Days ordinance that passed out of the Seattle City Council Health Committee on August 10th.

The poll reports 69% of voters support the current ordinance, while just 22% oppose the measure.

The poll also asked how a candidate’s support of the paid sick days ordinance would affect voter’s decisions on election day, to which more than four in ten respondents said they would be more inclined to support a mayoral (48% more likely) or city council (44% more likely) candidate who was in favor of the sick leave proposal. Only 20% were turned off by the stance.

“In tough economic times, workers are vulnerable and cannot afford to lose income or risk being disciplined simply because they have the flu or a child needs medical care. So many go to work sick because they do not have paid sick days,” said Marilyn Watkins, spokesperson for the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce. “Rebuilding the middle class, strengthening families’ economic security, and giving all children the opportunity to thrive requires common-sense protections like paid sick days.”

The ordinance passed by the Health Committee was modeled on the common-ground proposal crafted by Seattle workers, local small businesses, faith, labor and community groups. The proposal is set to come to the full Seattle City Council for a vote on September 12th.

Seattle City Council Member Nick Licata announces the official introduction of a paid sick days ordinance.

Via the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce:

Thanks to months of collaboration between local businesses and community organizations, and thousands of emails, postcards and phone calls from paid sick days supporters, the Seattle City Council will officially consider a paid sick days ordinance this summer!

This is a major step forward – we now have a chance to make paid sick days as basic as the 40-hour work week and the minimum wage here in Seattle.  But it’s important we keep up the pressure for action.

Please take a moment now to urge the Seattle City Council to vote on paid sick days this August.

The proposed paid sick days ordinance is backed by 75+ local organizations in the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce, and a growing list of local small business owners – many of whom helped write the ordinance.

But the City Council is already hearing from deep-pocketed interests lobbying against paid sick days. That’s why your message to the Council matters so much.

Tell the Seattle City Council why paid sick days matter to you and your family – and urge them to take action on paid sick days this August.

With paid sick days, you don’t have to choose between leaving a sick child at home alone or losing a day’s pay…or even your job. But 190,000 people working in Seattle don’t have that option – that’s 40% of the private-sector workforce!

You can help ensure everyone working in Seattle has paid sick days – please urge the Seattle City Council to vote on paid sick days this August.

Thank you for your support!

Evaluating Paid Sick Leave: Social, economic and health implications for Seattle

From the report Evaluating Paid Sick Leave
Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |10

“Stay home when you’re sick” was the key public health message during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, raising public awareness of the responsibility we all share in preventing the spread of contagious disease. The outbreak also highlighted how difficult it is for individuals without paid sick leave to meet competing obligations to their families, employers, their own well-being, and public health.

Paid time off from work to recover from illness, tend to a sick child, or see a doctor is a prerequisite for healthy workers and businesses, public health, family economic security, and even children’s success in school.

Yet four in ten workers get no paid sick leave – including many restaurant, grocery, and health care workers who are on the front lines of food safety and public health.

Seattle is home to about half a million jobs. An estimated 190,000 of those jobs do not offer paid sick leave, including nearly 30,000 in accommodation and food service, 20,000 in retail, and close to 20,000 in health services.

Minimum standards of paid sick days have been passed in three U.S. cities and are under consideration across the country. San Francisco’s paid sick leave ordinance has been in place the longest, since February 2007. The research there shows the new standards are supported by two-thirds of employers and have produced real benefits for half of all workers.

Since it was enacted, San Francisco’s job market has been stronger than in the state of California as a whole, and compares favorably with the surrounding counties. Adopting such a standard in the city of Seattle would protect public and community health, both in the city and throughout the region where Seattle’s workforce lives.

The U.S. health care system is possibly the most inefficient in the world: We spend twice as much per person on health care as other advanced countries, but we have worse health outcomes, including a lower life expectancy. The government, through programs like Medicare and Medicaid, pays for approximately half of the country’s health care, almost all of which is actually provided by the private sector. Thus, the bulk of our projected rising budget deficits are due to skyrocketing health care costs.

Click to use the interactive chart

The CEPR Health Care Budget Deficit Calculator shows that if the U.S. can get health care costs under control, our budget deficits will not rise uncontrollably in the future. But if we fail to contain health care costs, then it will be almost impossible to prevent exploding future budget deficits.

The Calculator lets you see what projected U.S. budget deficits would be if we had the same per person health care costs as any of the countries listed below, all of which enjoy longer life expectancies than the U.S. (Life expectancies are listed in parentheses.)

The yellow line shows projected deficits based on baseline projections from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The blue line shows where the deficits would be if health care costs in the U.S. were to rise only due to the aging of the population and stay even with per capita GDP growth (based on CBO’s “Low Health Care Cost” projection).

Use the CEPR calculator »

It’s easy to do, anonymous (if you want) and will only take a couple of minutes — click here to learn more and get started.

Since the late 1980′s, Washington’s Family Care Act (FCA) has helped ensure workers can use their paid sick days or other paid time off to care for a sick family member. For the most part, it’s worked well — but the FCA doesn’t give state agencies authority to stop employers from retaliating against workers who use the FCA.

Lawmakers are now considering two bills to create modest enforcement provisions for the FCA. We need your help to get this legislation passed and delivered to the Governor’s desk!

It’s easy: just call the state legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and say you’d like to leave a message for your state Representatives and state Senator. (You’ll need to give your street address for your message to get to the right office.) If you prefer, you can also look up your legislators here and send each of them an email.

The best message is in your own words – but here are a few talking points you can use:

• I urge your support for (“House Bill 1828” if speaking with your Representative; “Substitute Senate Bill 5263“, if speaking with your Senator).

• For most employees and employers in the state, the Family Care Act has been working well. Unfortunately, in some cases follow up and enforcement is necessary.

• When people can care for their families, we all benefit from reduced health care costs, and employers benefit from better productivity and higher morale.

• Children and adults get better more quickly when a family member is present. Follow up care is improved when family members are able to hear doctor’s instructions.

Declining Fortunes of Children in MIddle Class Families

Continued state budget cuts are lowering future prospects for the children of middle class families, according to a new report issued by The Foundation for Child Development (FDC), aptly titled “The Declining Fortunes of Children in Middle Class Families“.

According to the FDC, over the past 25 years, public education and health programs have stepped in to provide essential services for middle-class children that their parents cannot afford or take for granted. In particular, researchers have identified access to health insurance and enrollment in early learning programs as particularly critical for children’s long-term well-being and success.

Given those findings, it is ironic to see our state seriously considering proposals to end the Basic Health Plan, stop childcare subsidies for working parents, and carve billions out of K-12 education, while leaving millions in corporate tax exemptions on the books.

As the middle class erodes, we’ve seen the income gap between the richest and poorest families widen, and prospects for job security and retirement security lost. I’ve often heard this generational reversal of fortune blithely referred to as “the new normal”. But I think  Stan Sorscher (also an EOI Board Member) got it right when he called that phrase “some goofy hypnotic code for giving up on opportunities for our children and accepting diminished futures.”

The FDC report is a stark reminder that the choices we make today will define the “normal” for future generations. We have the power to create the future we want for our children and grandchildren by creating a foundation of strong educational, health and social support systems that make it possible for everyone to prosper.

Which public investment will pay off in a better future for our state?

A $23 million cut in King County health programs approved by the Legislature last month means layoffs in Maternity Support Services, a program that improves infant survival and health by providing a range of services to 30,000 women and babies.

Meanwhile a sales tax exemption for out-of-state coal worth…you guessed it, $23.7 million…is still on the books.

Voters’ voices make budget choices – you can contact your legislators here.

Odds are, no one mentions the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) — let alone the local departments of planning or health. But these public institutions – along with many others – actually have a major impact on our 21^st century Thanksgiving celebration.

While it would take too long to list everything that makes Thanksgiving possible, here are some of the big ones to remember as you gather around the table this Thursday:

• Do you work on Thanksgiving Day? Chances are you don’t, or if you do you’ll be compensated at a higher rate. Say thanks to the federal government, which declared Thanksgiving a federal holiday in 1941.

• Traveling to see family? Thank your local, state and federal governments for everything from the street you grew up on, to the interstate highway system, federal air travel standards and safety precautions, and tax subsidies for every mode of transportation.

• Good to see grandma and grandpa? Remember that they can eat pretty well year-round – no cat food, thank you! – and get high quality medical care, thanks to Social Security and Medicare.

• Do you watch football or the Macy’s Day Parade? Give thanks to the Federal Communications Commission, government-enforced NFL player contracts, and taxpayer subsidized stadiums for these television bonanzas.

• Walking off the meal with a stroll around the block? Give yourself and your neighbors a pat on the back for paying taxes for the sidewalks, and thank your state, local and federal government for enforcing poop and scoop pet laws, and zoning requirements that allow your neighborhood to have clean air and quiet streets.

• Last-minute trip to the store? Government-mandated car safety standards, city snow plows and salt trucks, and well-maintained pavement make it all possible.

• Getting ready to cook? The factories and farms that produce your food have been inspected by the Food and Drug Administration. Happy to have a free range turkey or know the ingredients in that canned cranberry sauce? The government requires industry to provide true and accurate information to consumers.

• Preparing the meal? You’ve got potable water coming from the faucet thanks to water safety standards. And if you’re cooking with gas or electricity, thank your government for building hydroelectric dams, managing the extraction of coal and gas, and ensuring that a bonded contractor did the installation in your house correctly with a required safety inspection.

• Taking it easy by eating out or ordering a pre-made meal? Food safety standards for cooking and storage have been established by city and county governments, with workers required to receive food safety certifications. That means your meal should be fully cooked with safe ingredients in a clean kitchen, free from hair and disease.

These are just a few things our government does for us not only on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of our lives. Our infrastructure, safety standards and rules were made possible by the generations before us, who invested time, hard work and money into the success of their communities and our country.

Our government helps make Thanksgiving relaxing, enjoyable  – and easy to take for granted. So, when it’s your turn to say what you’re thankful for, just remember the government – and its citizens – that helped to make it all possible.

But despite these obvious benefits, the United States has been reluctant to guarantee workers the right to earn parental leave on the job. As the only industrialized nation without a paid maternity leave system, some U.S. states have taken it upon themselves to implement state-level paid family leave insurance programs — allowing workers to earn paid maternity leave. But these benefits are only available in 5 states, and are linked to the ‘disabled status’ of the pregnant women — meaning fathers and adoptive parents are not eligible to earn the benefit.

So what are mothers in the other 45 U.S. states (and American fathers) missing out on? Here’s a quick look at paid leave programs in Sweden, Canada and Australia, compared to that of the U.S. — and Washington State in particular.

Sweden is the likely world leader in providing paid family leave benefits. The Swedish state-sponsored system of family leave is designed specifically to ensure parents — both mother and father — form strong bonds with new children. They provide 13 months of generously paid leave to new parents — with two months designated exclusively for fathers (the total benefit is 480 days). But that’s not all. After 12 months, Swedish children have access to highly subsidized quality preschool education. And should elderly parents get sick? The state-sponsored elderly care system ensures they will receive care around the clock care — so adult children don’t have to patch together leave time in order to care for them.

Click to enlarge

Our neighbors to the north in Canada also have quite a robust paid family leave program. For new mothers, maternity benefits are offered for 15 weeks, plus 35 weeks of paternity benefits that can be split between the two parents (a total benefit of 50 weeks). The typical benefit rate is 55% of the parents’ wages, but low-income parents are eligible for more.  Sickness and ‘compassionate care’ benefits are also available for for seriously ill workers or to care for a gravely ill family member, and are available for 15 and 21 weeks, respectively.

Even Australia, who until earlier this month accompanied the U.S. in the ranks of the only industrialized nation to not guarantee paid maternity leave, just passed a paid family leave law. The Australian law guarantees 18 weeks of maternity leave for new mothers at the federal minimum wage of $14.31 AUD per hour (about $12.60 USD) — more than $500 AUD per week. Stay-at-home mothers will continue to receive a ‘baby bonus’ of $5,000 upon the birth or adoption of a new baby, and Australia also guarantees workers get 8-10 fully paid days of leave for personal sickness, bereavement, or to care for an ill family member.

Now compare that to the U.S. Federal law that guarantees just 12 weeks of unpaid leave — and only a handful of states offer paid leave for mothers. The typical benefit is six weeks of job-protected leave with partial wage replacement for mothers; no benefits are offered to new fathers.

Washington State passed a paid family leave insurance law in 2007, but no funding source was designated by the legislature — so implementation has been pushed back to October 2012. Once up and running, the program will offer new mothers 5 weeks of time off, with partial wage replacement of $250 per week. Current state law doesn’t guarantee workers the right to earn paid leave — even though just 41% of Washington workers earn paid sick leave on the job — but it does guarantee workers who receive sick leave or other paid time off are able to use it to care for an ill spouse, child under 18, disabled child over age 18, parent, parent-in-law, or grandparent.

Federal start-up funding to help Washington’s paid leave program get off the ground is in the works, and would be a big win for families. Ensuring U.S. families are strong and healthy is an issue that spans the political spectrum. You can use this handy Candidate Questionnaire from the Washington Family Leave Coalition in the upcoming election season to ask your elected officials how they plan to work for working families in the months ahead.