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January 17, 2011
Discounted Jobs: How Retailers Sell Workers Short
Retail is one of the fastest growing sectors in the United States and a core part of the New York City economy. This study, conducted in the fall of 2011, sought to track the wages and working conditions of frontline non-managerial workers in New York’s booming retail industry. We interviewed workers employed at non-union large stores and national chains from high-end 5th Avenue fashion to off-brand clothing retailers on Fordham Road in the Bronx. Because New York is the retail capital of the United States, and the majority of respondents worked in stores with a national presence, this study paints a portrait of the practices and conditions experienced by retail workers across the country.
January 10, 2011
Should Paid Sick Days be Required by Law?
Millions of Americans have to go to work when they fall ill, a phenomenon known as presenteeism. But mandatory paid sick leave is healthier for us all. Connecticut just became the first state in the nation to require employers to provide workers with paid sick days. The new law — which also allows paid leave for a sick child or spouse — is controversial. Opponents attack it as big government run amok and say it will kill jobs. But it is the right thing to do, both as a matter of humane treatment of workers and public health. And while the law doesn’t cover everyone, it’s a step in the right direction and other states should follow Connecticut’s lead.
Dec. 16, 2011
Editorial from Senator Wolf, Chair of the Labor, Workforce, and Economic Development Committee: Making the Real-World Case for Paid Sick Days
Paid sick leave should become part of the accepted responsibility of running a business in Massachusetts. To me, this is both humane and smart. A simple, consistent paid sick leave policy would make for a better work environment defined both in terms of quality of life and, long term, the bottom line. From the very beginning, Cape Air, the airline I founded, has offered paid time off for all employees – as have many successful businesses across the region and state. I can say from hard-won experience that this “benefit” does not break the bank. It is a minimal cost, often returned in spades when a grateful, trusted, productive employee returns to work.

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Beacon Hill's Sick-Day Bill

The Valley Advocate

Beacon Hill's Sick-Day Bill

Thursday, July 14, 2011
By Maureen Turner

Last month, Connecticut became the first state in the nation to legally guarantee workers paid sick days. This week, the Massachusetts Legislature will take up a similar bill, at a July 14 hearing of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.

The Massachusetts bill would allow workers up to seven paid sick days a year, accrued at the rate of one hour for every 30 worked, to be used to care for themselves or a family member or to attend medical appointments. It would apply to all workers, in both the public and private sectors.

The bill is backed by groups including the Mass. AFL-CIO and MomsRising, which advocates for family-friendly public policy. According to the bill, almost half of Massachusetts workers get no paid sick time, with the lowest-paid workers least likely to get the benefit. About 20 percent of employees who do get sick days are not allowed to use them to care for a sick child or other family member.

Supporters say guaranteeing workers paid sick time would have both immediate benefits for individual workers and far-reaching benefits for the general public and for employers. It would allow people to get preventive healthcare, avoiding more serious—and costlier—health issues down the road. It would prevent employees from showing up at work sick, or sending their sick children to school or day care, and therefore cut down on the spread of infectious diseases. It would improve worker productivity by ensuring that people are coming to work healthy. And it would save money for everyone: "Routine medical care results in savings by detecting and treating illness and injury early and decreasing the need for emergency care. These savings benefit public and private payers of health insurance, including private businesses."

The bill also makes special mention of victims of domestic abuse, who could use the sick days to get medical care, go to court, or move themselves and their family out of a dangerous situation. "Providing paid sick days would mean important job security for domestic violence victims, as between a quarter to a half of all victims of domestic violence lose their jobs," the bill says.

Local backers of the House version include state reps Brian Ashe (D-Longmeadow), Cheryl Coakley-Rivera (D-Springfield), Sean Curran (D-Springfield), Peter Kocot (D-Northampton) and Ellen Story (D-Amherst). Coakley-Rivera is also House chair of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, which will hold this week's hearing. State Sen. Stan Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat, is a sponsor of the Senate version. The bill also has the backing of the Patrick administration.

Fighting against the bill are employer groups, especially those representing small business owners, who say the mandate would put too much financial pressure on their companies. "I think it's one of the worst things we can do for small businesses,' Bill Vernon, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, told the Boston Globe this spring.

The Associated Industries of Massachusetts also opposes the bill, arguing that such a requirement would " cause further job losses, hold back new hiring and wage growth, create a new area of potential (and inevitable) abuse, and add yet again another reason not to do business in Massachusetts."

Those kinds of arguments led to the watering down of the paid sick days bill that passed in Connecticut last month. The new Connecticut law, which goes into effect Jan 1., passed in a 3 a.m. vote, after 11 hours of debate along mostly partisan lines, with Republicans and conservative Democrats unsuccessfully joining to defeat it. They did, however, manage to water down the original bill.

The Connecticut law allows workers an hour of paid sick time for every 40 worked, to a maximum of five sick days a year. It applies only to service workers (a category that includes food service workers, cashiers and nursing aides, among other groups) at businesses with 50 or more employees. The law exempts manufacturers and nonprofits as well as day laborers, temps and independent contractors.

Advocates of the Massachusetts bill have spent the days leading up to the Statehouse hearing rallying supporters to contact their representatives. Activists from MomsRising were preparing to hand-deliver a "summer reading assignment" to legislators, with stories collected from Massachusetts families about why sick leave is important to them.