Position: OPPOSE Status: FEDERAL AND STATE BILLS INTRODUCED

On May 18, 2009, Representative Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT), introduced the Healthy Families Act of 2009 (H.R. 2460) in the U.S. House of Representatives, which would require businesses to provide seven days of paid sick leave per year to employees who work at least 30 hours a week. Employees who work less than 30 hours a week would qualify for a prorated amount of leave.

Mandated paid leave would significantly raise small-business costs which would have to be recouped somewhere, most likely through reduced wages or fewer paid benefits. Generally, paid sick leave legislation would require businesses to provide specific levels of paid leave to employees based on hours worked, with the number of hours that qualify employees for paid leave capped at various limits. Paid family leave proposals offers new parents time off with pay to care for newborns or in some cases sick family members.

At the state level, paid sick leave campaigns are under way in more than a dozen states. Three cities-Milwaukee, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.-have paid sick leave laws.