FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lesley Sillaman
June 15, 2004 (202) 225-3661
DeLauro, Kennedy Introduce Healthy Families Act
Bill Would Allow Employees Paid Sick Leave
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) today joined Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) to introduce the Healthy Families Act, that would guarantee full-time employees at least seven days of paid sick leave each year and part-time employees a pro-rated amount of leave to care for themselves and their families’ medical needs.
“Our common sense and values are shocked when almost half of full-time, private sector workers and 75 percent of low-wage workers have no paid sick leave,” said DeLauro. “Paid sick leave is a necessity to ensure that workers have the right to take time off to deal with their own medical needs, or those of their families.”
The Healthy Families Act requires all employers with at least 15 or more employees to provide 7 days of paid sick leave annually for full-time employees (working 30 hours per week or 1500 hours per year) and a pro-rated amount of leave for part-time employees working at least 20 hours a week or 1000 a year. Workers can use leave to meet their own medical needs, or to care for the medical needs of a family member. Employers are encouraged to provide greater leave benefits, but are not required to modify existing paid leave policies if they meet minimum standards.
The National Partnership for Women and Families and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) joined the press conference with reports detailing the amount of sick leave Americans are granted right now. An IWPR report says that nearly 60 million workers in the United States have no paid sick leave. National Partnership for Women and Families released a state-by-state report card that details state sick leave policies. 28 states received D+ grades or lower for their paid sick leave policies.
“139 nations provide paid leave for short or long term illnesses, and 117 of those nations guarantee their workers a week or more of paid sick days per year,” said DeLauro. “However, no federal law in the United States guarantees a single day of paid sick leave to employees. This is wrong - we need to do more to guarantee our workers the paid sick time they deserve. ”