UPDATE:
AB 1522 passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee with unanimous approval. The bill is now on the floor of the Senate. Assemblymember Gonzalez anticipates a Senate floor vote on the bill next week or the following and if it is passed out, then it needs to come back to the Assembly for a concurrence vote, in which the amendments (none of which are substantive) that were taken in the Senate are approved by the Assembly. This all has to take place before August 31. If we succeed, the bill then goes to the Governor and he has 30 days to sign it or veto it. Stay tuned!
The waitress at your favorite breakfast spot comes down with the flu. She has two children to support and an income that barely allows her to meet expenses in Silicon Valley. Here is her choice: stay at work when she shouldn’t, handling food for hundreds of customers, or lose pay (and perhaps a job) by staying home to take care of herself.
A new study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that in San Jose, one in three jobs does not allow workers to earn sick leave benefits. Nationwide, that number is closer to 40 percent in the private sector, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute.
The low wage service sector employees who deal directly with the public are the least likely to earn sick leave. In San Jose, nearly 80 percent of food service and hotel workers do not get a single paid sick day. Workers in child care centers and nursing homes also overwhelmingly lack paid sick days. These workers feel compelled to go to work sick. If they don’t, they may not earn enough to pay for food, rent or other necessities.
And when workers go to work sick, it’s bad for everyone. Think how many restaurant workers expose thousands of customers to contagious diseases every day. One study indicates that if all workers earned sick leave benefits, 1.3 million emergency room visits — and $1.1 billion in associated costs — could be avoided every year.
Not having earned sick leave is particularly difficult for working women, who are predominantly responsible for meeting family caregiving needs and who make up almost two-thirds of minimum wage workers. Close to half of working mothers report that they must miss work when a child is sick. More than a third of those women will lose pay when they do.
The lack of earned sick leave has a racial element as well. Over half of Hispanic workers lack paid sick days. White workers are much more likely to have earned sick leave benefits.
A robust and thriving economy depends on an economically secure, healthy and productive work force — which cannot be achieved when more than 40 million workers in America have no paid sick days.
A handful of cities around the nation have adopted earned sick leave policies, and in Santa Clara County, we are taking a critical step to address problem through a county Living Wage policy that will include paid sick leave.
Right now, only Connecticut has a paid sick leave policy. California could be next, if a bill in the legislature makes its way to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk and gets his signature. State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, with the support of the California Labor Federation, is working to pass AB 1522, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act. AB 1522 will ensure workers are able to accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, and employers will have the option of capping an employee’s paid sick leave at three days.
Both AB 1522 and the Silicon Valley Living Wage are steps in the right direction. Passing basic standards that allow workers to earn a reasonable number of paid sick days is good for workers, their families and the health of the whole community.
Ben Field is executive officer of the South Bay Labor Council. Derecka Mehrens is executive director of Working Partnerships USA. This article first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News.
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