Caring Causes: National Partnership for Women and Families - Healthy Families Act

A new fact sheet on Minnesota’s workforce released today by the National Partnership for Women & Families explores the impact of more than 947,000 workers in the state not being able to earn a single paid sick day. It focuses on the individuals and industries most affected by the lack of paid sick days, including children, restaurant workers and low-wage workers and their families. The fact sheet makes a powerful case for paid sick days standards at the state and national levels.

 

“Our nation’s failure to establish a paid sick days standard is harming people in Minnesota and across the country,” said Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership. “It is absolutely unacceptable that so many hardworking people and their families risk grave financial hardship if they get the flu, strep throat or another common illness because they cannot earn basic paid sick days, even after years at their jobs. Lawmakers at all levels need to look closely at what is at stake and take action.”

 

Twenty-four jurisdictions across the country already have, or will soon have, laws in place that guarantee workers the right to earn paid sick time. Minnesota is not one of them. To create the new fact sheet, the National Partnership compiled the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau for all of the states that do not yet have a state or municipal paid sick days law. Fact sheets for all of these states, including Minnesota, can be found in map form here.

 

According to the new fact sheet:

 

·         Nearly 190,000 people in Minnesota work in restaurants – an industry in which, nationally, 90 percent of workers cannot earn paid sick days;

·         The largest industry in Minnesota is health care and social assistance. Nationally, more than one-quarter of workers in that industry cannot earn paid sick time;

·         Overall, 22.2 percent of Minnesota jobs are considered low wage, and few low-wage jobs allow workers to earn paid sick days; and

·         Nearly 950,000 children in Minnesota live in families in which all parents work, but parents with paid sick days often cannot use them to care for children.

 

Nationally, more than 43 million private sector workers – nearly 40 percent of the country’s workforce – cannot earn paid sick days. That number has remained largely unchanged in recent years, despite a growing body of evidence that shows paid sick days benefit families, businesses and economies; and 85 percent of voters saying they want employers to provide paid sick time. The National Partnership fact sheet concludes that the Healthy Families Act, which would establish a national paid sick days standard of seven paid sick days per year, should be a high priority for Congress.

 

“State and national level data like these make it painfully clear that employers and lawmakers are not acting quickly enough to establish the paid sick days standards workers and families across the country urgently want and need,” Ness continued. “Access to paid sick days should not depend on where someone lives or what job they hold. The Healthy Families Act is a common sense proposal that has been tested in states and cities across the country. It is long past time for Congress to make its passage a priority.”

 

The National Partnership convenes a broad and diverse coalition that supports the Healthy Families Act. More information can be found at PaidSickDays.org.

 

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The National Partnership for Women & Families is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group dedicated to promoting fairness in the workplace, access to quality health care, and policies that help women and men meet the dual demands of work and family. More information is available at www.NationalPartnership.org.