Making Maryland a Better Place for Business and Families
Maryland workers need paid sick leave, so they can afford to take care of themselves and their families, and to protect the rest of us from getting sick. Yet more than 700,000 working Marylanders currently lack paid sick leave. The Healthy Working Families Act (Senate Bill 40) would remedy this. Earned sick leave and safe leave for domestic violence victims supports working families so they don’t have to make decisions like taking time off to care for their sick child or working so that they can pay their bills.
In Maryland, more than half of working moms don’t have access to earned sick days to care for themselves or their families. Every time they or their child gets sick, they must ask themselves: can I afford to take off? A typical family without earned sick leave will lose its entire month’s grocery budget after missing 3.5 days of work. Working moms are almost half (49 percent) of all the workers in Maryland. We know that workers without earned sick leave are most likely to be women, people of color, and low-wage job workers
Furthermore, the Healthy Working Families Act would keep Maryland’s economy moving forward. The loss of income for a family without paid sick leave doesn’t stop at the family’s door; the local stores will feel it too. That neighborhood grocer will miss the money the family would have spent. Now imagine what happens to our local economy when many of the over 700,000 Marylanders who don’t have earned sick and safe leave have to take a loss of income during this flu season. That is a potentially devastating hit to our community, never mind it also means a parent forgoing food for themselves so their child can eat or so they can pay their rent, medical bills, or transportation costs.
Providing earned sick time is expected to yield benefits of $132 million annually for employers, largely due to savings from reduced turnover. It costs businesses money when employees don’t have earned sick leave. Local businesses, like the grocery store, will see a loss when parents are forced to spend their money on other necessities, like rent or medical bills, because they didn’t have access to earned sick leave. In states with earned sick leave, like Connecticut and California, businesses see no harm to their bottom line.
The act would enable workers to earn up to seven sick days a year, less than one day a month. For every 30 hours a person works, they earn 1 hour of sick leave. Those few hours give a significant boost to public health. Parents without earned sick leave are more likely to send their sick child to school or day care. Earned sick leave also works to prevent illnesses from becoming more complicated medical issues by allowing a worker to take time off for doctor’s appointments. Waiting until after the work day or until the illness is severe leads to higher emergency rooms visits-increasing costs of care.
This act also guarantees paid safe leave for victims of domestic and sexual violence. Under current state law, victims are only eligible for unpaid leave. This can result in a significant loss of income for survivors of violence who need to take time to get protective services, find a safe place to live and handle criminal proceedings. In fact, it could be a deciding factor in the survivor’s ability to leave a violent situation. Doing so can be a long, time-consuming process, and Maryland’s employees should not be penalized for doing the right thing to protect themselves and their children.
We have the opportunity to move Maryland and its economy forward. The passage of the Healthy Working Families Act would provide workers with the necessary leave to care for themselves and their families while protecting our economy and public health and helping victims of domestic and sexual violence.
