Amy Traub

Earned Paid Sick Time Campaign Kicks Off

The Drum Major Institute had the opportunity to join Councilwoman Gail Brewer and advocates from A Better Balance: The Work and Family Legal Center and The New York State Paid Family Leave Coalition this afternoon at a press conference kicking off the campaign for Earned Paid Sick Time in New York City.

Here's what I had to say:

• Guaranteeing paid sick time isn't just a pie-in-the sky idea. It's a policy that really has a proven track record in San Francisco. 100,000 working people there gained the right to get sick in 2007 and the results have been overwhelmingly positive.

• The law in San Francisco includes every person employed in the city. People who work part-time are included. Employees who work for the smallest of small businesses are included. Everybody gets sick, and so everybody is guaranteed sick days.

• Employment in San Francisco did not suffer after the law was passed. Hospitality and restaurants were the industries where the largest number of employees were getting the benefit for the first time. After San Francisco's law went into effect, state statistics show that those businesses continued to see strong job growth, especially when compared with surrounding counties.

• I'd like to read to you what some San Francisco business organizations that initially opposed the law have to say now. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association described the law as "successful" in USA Today and said they had not seen employees abusing the benefit. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce told the Wall Street Journal they had not heard about it being a major issue for local businesses.

• This is a policy that works. It worked in San Francisco, and it will work here in New York as well.

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Posted at 12:20 PM, Jul 29, 2009 in
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