In Missouri, Alaska and Nebraska, the place voters supported Donald Trump, additionally they voted to increase paid sick go away, proving that “voters do not see these as partisan points.”
By Chabeli Carrazana and initially revealed by The nineteenth
In each state the place paid sick go away was on the poll, voters authorised it. On Election Day, measures in Missouri, Alaska, and Nebraska handed by large margins: In Alaska, 57% of voters authorised it, in Missouri it was 58%, and in Nebraska a whopping 74%.
The three new initiatives will give staff earned sick time relying on the scale of their employer. If the enterprise has 15 or extra staff in Missouri and Alaska, or 20 or extra in Nebraska, staff earn as much as 56 hours of paid sick time a yr. That’s equal to seven days in the event that they work eight-hour shifts. Those that work for smaller companies can earn as much as 40 hours a yr, or 5 eight-hour days.
The paid go away legal guidelines go into impact in Could (Missouri), July (Alaska), and October (Nebraska).
Employees can use the time in case of sickness or to take care of a member of the family who’s sick. The profit is taken into account crucial to assist help and retain low-wage staff, who’re the probably to have restricted or no entry to paid sick time. The vast majority of them are girls.
About 80% of staff within the nation get some paid sick time, however among the many lowest earners, solely 38% do. Completely different industries present completely different ranges of go away. Solely half of hospitality and meals service staff—who’re predominantly girls—receives a commission sick time.
The US is one in every of a handful of nations that doesn’t have a national-level paid go away coverage, and so over time, states have created their very own measures guaranteeing both paid sick go away, paid parental go away, or each.
With the three new legal guidelines, 18 states and Washington, D.C., now have their very own assured paid sick time legal guidelines. Alaska’s and Missouri’s poll measures will even enhance these states’ minimal wages as much as $15 an hour, following within the footsteps of 30 different states. The federal minimal wage is $7.25 an hour and hasn’t been raised in 15 years.
Inimai Chettiar, the president of A Higher Steadiness, the nonprofit group that helped draft the three poll measures, mentioned that, because the voting outcomes present, “paid sick time is a winning issue that is overwhelmingly beneficial for families and popular among voters across party lines.”
Buttons calling for Paid Depart for All buttons are displayed at a Sept. 19, 2024, occasion in Washington, DC.
“In an uncertain time for workplace justice at the federal level, we know that state-level victories like these will continue to play a critical role in advancing new rights for workers and caregivers,” Chettiar mentioned in a press release. “State advances also show federal policymakers a path forward for popular, common-sense measures to ensure workers can care for themselves and their loved ones.”
All three states that handed the measures additionally supported Donald Trump, a end result consultants have highlighted as proof that “progressive policies” just like the minimal wage and paid go away have robust salience with voters no matter occasion affiliation.
“What we know is: Workers need paid sick leave. Workers needed paid sick leave last week, they’ll need it tomorrow, they’ll need it in a year,” mentioned Molly Weston Williamson, a senior fellow with the Middle for American Progress, a progressive assume tank.
“Voters don’t see these as partisan issues. Voters see the minimum standards. They see these as a central right that everyone ought to have. And when voters have the opportunity to express that at the ballot box, they bring that message home loud and clear.”
Neither Trump nor Vice President Kamala Harris made any guarantees about what paid sick or parental go away coverage they’d go as president. Harris, nonetheless, talked concerning the challenge much more broadly than Trump, who didn’t point out it on the marketing campaign path.
Throughout his first time period, Trump signed a coronavirus invoice that expanded paid sick go away advantages and included a provision that allowed dad and mom to take as much as 12 weeks of paid sick go away at two-thirds pay to care for a kid whose college or day care had been shuttered as a result of COVID-19. It finally expired and wasn’t prolonged by Congress.
Trump additionally signed a protection invoice that assured 12 weeks of paid parental go away for federal staff, a coverage precedence of his daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump, who is anticipated to not play a task in a second time period.
It’s unclear if he’ll pursue any sort of paid go away coverage in his second time period.
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