Maryland’s working families are once again being left behind as paid sick days legislation has been pulled from consideration during the 2015 session of the Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Working Families is concerned that politics are preventing a measure that will benefit hundreds of thousands of residents from being fully considered and enacted.
Giving employees the ability to earn paid sick days to take care of themselves and family members is both an economic and social win for Maryland. Families shouldn’t have to face impossible choices; deciding between whether to go to work sick, putting off going to the doctor and sending sick children to school or taking unpaid time off, losing desperately needed income, risking losing hours or getting fired.
Paid sick leave is a tremendously popular issue, with three-quarters of Marylanders supporting the legislation and many state Democrats including it in their platforms during the 2014 elections. This year’s bill had nearly 100 legislative cosponsors and more than 135 organizations and businesses engaged in the Working Matters campaign for paid sick days.
As the lead organization advocating for an increase in the minimum wage, we see clear parallels in how these issues move through the Maryland General Assembly. Minimum wage advocates waged a campaign for three sessions before last year’s bill to raise the rate to $10.10 passed. By the third session – and the last legislative session before the 2014 elections — the proposal had support from the governor, lieutenant governor and legislative leadership.
But during those three sessions, the legislation was diminished. Key aspects of the original bill were stripped out and tipped workers were actually set back as legislators set their wages permanently at $3.63 per hour instead of half of the minimum wage.
Maryland Working Families fears the same fate for the paid sick days legislation; that the issue will be put off, possibly until the 2018 elections, and that it will be a weaker bill, failing to live up to the intent of the measure and shortchanging hardworking Marylanders.
We encourage Maryland legislators to take a look at the national scene, where paid sick days measures have been enacted in Massachusetts, California and the District of Columbia along with ten cities in the past year alone. There are active campaigns in nearly 20 states and many more at the local level. At the end of March, 14 Republican U.S. senators voted for a non-binding budget resolution to create paid sick days on the federal level. Though their votes were largely symbolic, it speaks to the growing understanding of the need for paid sick days.
Maryland’s working families shouldn’t have to wait until another year or another election cycle to be able to earn paid sick time. Let’s not make Maryland families wait for fairness because of political calculations. We call on the leadership of the Maryland General Assembly to lead and enact paid sick days legislation for workers who have earned this important benefit.