Click link below to take the poll.
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/06/10/take-parade-magazines-online-poll-on-paid-sick-leave/by Mike Hall, Jun 10, 2008
Parade magazine wants to know if you support requiring employers to provide workers with paid sick days.
This past weekend, Parade, which comes in more than 400 Sunday papers, reaching an audience of 70 million readers, featured a story on the lack of paid sick leave days for U.S. workers. As part of the feature, Parade is conducting an online poll about paid sick days. Click here to vote.
Nearly 50 percent of private-sector workers have no paid sick days, and low-income workers fare even worse—76 percent have no paid sick leave. Overall, 57 million private-sector workers in this country have no paid sick days and 94 million cannot use their paid sick days to care for a sick child.
The Healthy Families Act (S. 910 and H.R. 1542) would guarantee paid sick leave for workers to recover from an illness or care for a sick family member. Workers without paid sick leave are forced to make wrenching choices between work and family.
The Parade article points out that a cost-benefit analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research shows passage of the bill could save the U.S. economy $8.1 billion a year by preventing lost productivity due to sick workers, the spread of illness to co-workers and customers and worker turnover.
Last year, Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, told a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing:
The United States lags far behind the rest of the world in providing paid leave, including countries with some of the strongest economies in the world: At least 145 nations provide paid leave for short- or long-term illnesses, and 127 of those nations guarantee a week or more of paid sick days per year to their workforce.
Don’t forget to join the National Partnership for Women & Families‘ online rally for paid sick leave. When you visit the rally site, you can learn how to take action, share your story and more. So far, thousands of working people have taken part in the online rally, where they have heard from community leaders, workers and union leaders about why we need a fundamental law ensuring paid sick days.
Click here to join the rally.