Washington Family Leave Coalition

Posted by: Alex Stone | March 17, 2010

The benefits of the Healthy Families Act

A report released today by the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) estimates the impact of the Healthy Families Act, which would provide workers in businesses with 15+ employees a minimum paid sick leave requirement of seven days per year.

The estimates:

As a result of the Healthy Families Act, at least 30.3 million additional workers would have access to paid sick leave.

Almost half of the increased access to paid sick leave (14.7 million additional workers) would accrue to workers in the bottom wage quartile;

Nearly half (13.3 million workers) of the increased access to paid sick leave would accrue to women workers; and,

Almost one-third of the increased access to paid sick leave would accrue to minority workers, including 3.9 million additional African-American workers and 5.6 million additional Latino workers.

The Healthy Families Act would also significantly expand access to paid sick leave for workers in professions with critical public health implications. For instance, 5.9 million additional food service and preparation workers would have access to paid sick leave due to the Healthy Families Act.

Read more from the JEC website | Find more information on the Healthy Families Act from EOI

Paid sick days can help heal our families — and our economy

There are millions of working moms like Eva. Unable to find a job and kicked off welfare, she sells her food stamps to buy basic necessities. She is inches from losing her meager living in the middle of the worst recession in decade — and a lack of paid sick days contributed to her downward economic spiral:

After two years at the wholesale company, Eva woke up one morning to find that her younger daughter had a high fever and her asthma had flared up. Eva called into work and rushed to the hospital early that morning “just to make sure she was okay.” When she got to the job in the afternoon after dropping the girl at home with her mother, tired from a long day in the emergency room, Eva found that she was being fired.

The Human Recession

is a “don’t turn away” look at life on the edge in today’s economy — one story among many that illustrates why we need new public policies that ensure no one has to choose between keeping their job and caring for their family.

To learn more about how paid sick days help protect economic security for working families during tough economic times, check out out this fact sheet from the National Partnership for Women and Families.