Paid Leave | Earned Paid Sick Time
The Issue: Earned Paid Sick Time (EPST)
In 2018, Mothering Justice and the MI Time To Care coalition turned in more than enough signatures to put Earned Paid Sick Time on the November ballot.
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Women are much more likely to have caregiving responsibilities in addition to their paid employment, including caring for elderly parents, children, or ill spouses/partner. Without paid sick days, women are often left with no choice but to forego pay in order to meet their families’ health care needs. More than 2 million Michigan workers are not able to take a paid sick day when they are ill. More than three in four food service and hotel workers (78 percent) do not have a single paid sick day. Workers in child care centers and nursing homes – important jobs with vulnerable populations – also overwhelmingly lack paid sick days. For these families, each time they take needed time off, they risk their families’ economic security and jeopardize the public’s health.
The Issue: Paid Leave
Today, the United States is one of the only industrialized countries that do not offer a single Paid Leave Day. Now, only 21 percent of U.S. workers have access to paid family leave from an employer. Over 30 million workers, including 67 percent of low-wage workers, do not have access to a single paid leave day. Low Wage and part-time workers, and the majority of whom are women, are less likely to have access to paid leave days.
