Support For Paid Sick Days Spreading Nationwide

How many times have we all been told—by school nurses, by concerned parents, by CDC-sponsored posters—to stay home when we’re sick? It’s a matter of public health and of common sense. And yet, 40 million American workers do not have access to the paid sick time that would allow them to heed those warnings without risking their employment.

The United States has no federal standard that requires businesses to give their workers any paid sick days, and the vast majority of states and municipalities do not have standards in place, either. As a result, when these workers get sick, they have a remarkably unfair choice to make—risk their health and that of their customers and colleagues or risk losing a their paycheck or their job. Today’s socioeconomic realities underscore the drastic need for reform. By 2008, 48 percent of children had all parents in their households working full-time. When those children get sick, their mothers and fathers without paid sick days are forced to make a choice: care for their families or provide for their families.  Low-income parents are particularly affected, as fully 80 percent of low-wage jobs do not offer access to paid sick time, compared to 40 percent of all US jobs. As low and middle income families continue to weather the challenges of the recession, the lack of access to paid sick days is yet another obstacle to economic security and stability.

In the face of these statistics and realities, it seems hard to understand how the Healthy Families Act—a proposed law that would let all workers at businesses with 15 or more employees earn up to seven paid sick days per year—has not been passed by Congress.  In a year when the threat of a government shutdown has become a CNN staple, it seems unlikely that this will change.

And yet, despite the federal political climate that is markedly incompatible with meaningful progress, the paid sick days movement has seen a series of important successes in the past several months. A network of state and local campaigns across the country has organized vibrant grassroots efforts to effect change in their communities. While Washington is mired in partisan ideology, these campaigns are demonstrating that by building strong coalitions and executing effective public strategies, it is still possible to achieve real political results.

The first major victory for Paid Sick Days came in 2006, when the city of San Francisco passed its ordinance. Since then, Washington, DC passed a standard in 2008, Connecticut became the first state with a paid sick days standard this past June, and Seattle officially passed its law just last month. Today, there are active paid sick day campaigns in 19 states and cities, all contributing to the movement’s momentum.

The laws that have been passed and those being proposed across the country do vary in specifics, but they generally follow the model of the Healthy Families Act. In these varied and vibrant campaigns, advocates have built powerful cooperative coalitions between workers, unions, public health groups, and local business owners. The Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce leveraged this community-based model to achieve its recent success. The group identified a broad base of supporters among Seattle businesses, local experts and citizens. It also launched an aggressive, creative publicity campaign that drew public support. Considering that two-thirds of U.S. adults polled nationwide favor a law that would guarantee a minimum number of paid sick days, a key part of any successful campaign is simply drawing attention to the issue.

This led the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce to begin inducting businesses into the “Paid Sick Days Hall of Shame”. The campaign organized protests outside a local Starbucks, Jimmy John’s and McDonald’s to highlight the companies’ lack of paid sick days for their employees. Groups of supporters picketed on the sidewalks outside the locations, holding homemade signs with slogans like, “No Flu with my Food.” In a touch of street theatre, “Cyrus the Virus”– an advocate in a green virus costume playing the part of a contagious disease concerned about successful paid sick days legislation– would sometimes join protesters.

This image illustrates that, while the initiative for paid sick days has been professionally developed and executed, the campaigns maintain a distinctly local, “grassroots” nature. National organizations have taken an active role in the paid sick days movement, coordinating messages and providing valuable leadership. However, in order to succeed, it appears clear that a campaign’s action plan needs to come from the unique dynamics of its community, and its strength must come from successfully harnessing local political capital.

In today’s national political context, frustration and anti-government sentiment are the forces that tend to mobilize advocates and activists. Political discourse has focused on what various groups of Americans are against—the president, the deficit, the tax code, the EPA. There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with organized criticism of politics and policy. However, as many pundits and voters have begun to note, political discourse has taken on a harsh, divisive and frequently destructive tone.

The fight for paid sick days engenders strong conviction and commitment—with people’s health and employment at issue, it should. However, perhaps due to the clear goal of passing a piece of legislation, these campaigns manage to stay focused on bread-and-butter concerns rather than ideologically divisive rhetoric.  Some opponents may view a paid sick days standard as radical, but the diverse, moderate make-up of the most successful coalitions underscores the fact that these provisions are common-sense reform.

Today’s Americans face a dire economic situation and a system badly in need of reform. These challenges, paired with an ineffective federal government, can lead to anger.  That anger can be a powerful motivating factor for political organization. And yet, with the paid sick days movement, we see a model of local-level organizing that identifies shared goals rather than harnessing mutual frustration.

Many middle and lower income Americans struggle daily to make ends meet and provide for their families. Some weaknesses that cause these problems are foundational and require a systemic overhaul, but others—like the need for paid sick days—can be addressed by proactive, focused solutions.

The paid sick days effort should be a reminder that partisan, ideological gridlock denies Americans the kind of government action they deserve. But they should also be a reminder of Americans’ potential to solve even their most durable problems. When the ideology is stripped away and communities fight for something together rather than against one another, campaigns see success and communities see progress.

This article originally appeared in Counterpoint, a student publication at Georgetown University that receives funding and training as a member of Campus Progress' journalism network.

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