Washington Policy Watch

By Katie Bethel | MomsRising.org

If you shop at Wal-Mart, you may be coming home with more than a good deal–you might be exposed to contagious illnesses like colds and the flu.

Why? As the New York Times recently reported, employees receive demerits, lose pay, and ultimately risk termination for taking sick days.

That’s exactly what happened to this family: 

”My husband just got fired for missing sick days. He missed 5 1/2 days in 6 months.” Read the rest of this entry »

Michelle Obama on work and family:

I’d like to just spend a few brief moments talking about today, an issue that I’ve talked a lot about, and that’s the issue of work-life balance. You know it: the constant struggle to meet our responsibilities both as employees, but also as breadwinners, and mothers and fathers. … And as the mother of two young girls it’s an issue that is particularly near and dear to my heart.

And while there’s certainly plenty of employers out there who recognize the value of good work-life policies, many people in this country just aren’t as fortunate to work with those employers. And with the job market the way it is right now, many folks can’t afford to be picky. You just can’t. When you have a job, you keep it; and you settle for the terms that you have because you know you’re blessed to even have a job. And many don’t have access, as a result, to good family leave policies or any kind of flexibility in the workplace at all. It’s just not possible. So they struggle to find affordable childcare and emergency childcare when their usual arrangements fall through, which they always do — right?

And believe it or not, today roughly 40 percent of private-sector employees work at companies that don’t offer a single day of paid sick leave. Not a single day.
Read the rest of this entry »

Huffington Post -> Paid Leave Makes Horse Sense: Vacations are good for your health. And, you don’t need to get away to any fancy Caribbean retreat to get the benefit of time-off from work. But it helps if you are a horse. In New York City, that is. | More

Sloan Work and Family Network -> The Work-Life Tip Sheet – 10 Steps to a Successful Workplace: Over the years, there’s been plenty of shaming big employers — picketing, signs with attack slogans, marching in the streets. But the game of us-against-them doesn’t work. In order to transform the workplace to better reflect today’s workforce, we need to think about how to make working women and their families happy. | More

Huffington Post -> Shop Wal-Mart, Get…Sick?: If you shop at Wal-Mart to finish up that last bit of holiday shopping this week, you may be coming home with more than a good deal — you might be exposed to contagious illnesses like colds and the flu. Why? As the New York Times recently reported, employees can receive “occurrences,” commonly known as demerits, lose pay, and ultimately risk termination for taking sick days. | More

Halfway through the 111th congressional session, recent headlines have focused almost exclusively on health care reform. But our elected officials have made progress on important work-family legislation as well:

• The Healthy Families Act (House and Senate) has received overwhelming support. More than 125 Representative and Senators are co-sponsoring the legislation. The Act would provide a minimum amount of paid sick time to employees, so a routine illness doesn’t result in economic hardship. If passed, workers will no longer have to choose between their job and their family— ensuring economic insecurity isn’t just one flu season away.

• The FIRST Act (Family Income to Respond to Significant Transitions) has 24 House co-sponsors in addition to its sponsor Rep. Lynn Woolsey. If passed, the bill would bolster existing paid leave programs – or fund new ones, like Washington’s Family Leave Insurance program. The FIRST Act helps states develop and implement paid paternal leave programs, as well as offer funding to cover care for a seriously-ill family member, injured service member or leave to recover from a worker’s own serious illness. These programs help workers during rare times of hardship, and offer benefits proven to strengthen economic security for individuals and businesses alike.

Take a moment to recognize those leaders who are putting families first by telling your elected official(s), in your own words, why their vote for working families earns your vote of confidence — and thank them for their support.

A list of sponsors and co-sponsors for both the Senate and House versions of the Healthy Families Act, as well as the FIRST Act (House only) is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. is currently the only developed nation that does not require some paid sick leave for workers. Nearly 40 percent of private sector workers have no paid sick leave, including 78 percent of hotel workers and 85 percent of food service workers.

A survey last year by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found that “68 percent of those not eligible for paid sick days said they had gone to work with a contagious illness like the flu.” As CAP Senior Fellow Ann O’Leary and Karen Kornbluh, U.S. Representative to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, pointed out in The Shriver Report: A Women’s Nation Changes Everything, “too often, most low- and many moderate-wage workers cannot access even the minimum benefits provided to more highly paid workers.” And this is true of paid sick leave, as 88 percent of workers in the top 10 percent of wage earners have it, compared to just 22 percent of workers in the bottom 10.

“Hopefully, employers are doing the right thing and not disciplining workers who are out sick as a result of the flu,” wrote Center for American Progress Senior Economist Heather Boushey. “But there’s no penalty for employers who choose not to pay workers in this situation, or who refuse workers any time off at all.”