All Featured Highlights

• Apr 02, 2013  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Getting Down to Business Newsletter - April 2013 Getting Down to Business is a CLASP monthly update on the latest news about business and paid leave. Read Online
• Apr 01, 2013  |  Jodie Levin Epstein and Dr. Eileen Appelbaum Interview Protocol for MA Business Interviews on Earned Paid Sick Time Download PDF
• Mar 26, 2013  |  Andrea Lindemann Gilliam and Liz Ben-Ishai Implementing Earned Sick Day Laws: First Out of the Gate: San Francisco’s Sick Days Law Implementing a new law is always a complex process. But what happens when you are the first jurisdiction in the country to pass such a law? This was the unique challenge facing San Francisco when it passed the nation's first earned sick days law in 2006. The City and County government took on the challenge admirably, employing a variety of creative strategies to conduct outreach to the public, write meaningful rules, and ensure the law would be properly enforced. Download PDF
• Mar 20, 2013  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Business Voices: Implementation of Sick Days Laws is Straightforward Around the nation, city councils and state legislatures are increasingly considering legislation to establish a sick days’ law. Employers, particularly those who are not familiar with sick days’ policy, are leery of administering it. For some, this worry leads them to oppose passage of legislation. However, in locations where laws are already implemented, many businesses have stepped forward to acknowledge that administering sick days’ policy is actually pretty simple. Download PDF
• Mar 04, 2013  |  Liz Ben-Ishai Getting Down to Business Newsletter - March 2013 Getting Down to Business is a CLASP monthly update on the latest news about business and paid leave. Read Online
• Mar 01, 2013  |  CLASP and ASBC New Tool for Job Quality Advocates: A Primer on Business Certifications Today, CLASP and its partner, the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), released a new tool for job quality advocates, including advocates for earned sick days and paid family leave. The jointly produced brief provides advocates with a primer on the nuts and bolts of the business certification movement and suggests ways to foster fruitful relationships between the movement and campaigns for improved job quality, such as earned sick days campaigns. Read Online
• Feb 27, 2013  |  Liz Ben-Ishai Implementing Earned Sick Days Laws: Learning from Seattle's Experience Advocates in Seattle fought hard to build the support necessary to pass the city’s Paid Sick and Safe Time (PSST) Ordinance. But the hard work did not end when the law passed in November 2011. Once the ink on Seattle’s ordinance had dried, the process of implementing the law began. Download PDF
• Feb 19, 2013  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein When Family Leave Crosses the Aisle All politicians -- whether Democratic or Republican -- have a mother. While their politics may differ, they share a need to care for parents and other family at some point in their lives. That's common ground. Read Online
• Feb 14, 2013  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Family Leave Insurance: Before the Smoke Settles “Holy smokes!” is how James Heckman, a Nobel prize winner in economics, enthusiastically reacted to the details of President Obama’s early childhood education plans. Heckman’s shout-out makes sense. One doesn’t need to be a Nobel laureate nor an economist to see how this early education agenda could make a huge difference in providing opportunity to many more children. While the agenda is bold and multifaceted and deserves high marks, it also missed a vital opportunity by neglecting to address paid family leave. Read Online
• Sep 03, 2007  |  Elizabeth Lower-Basch Opportunity at Work: Improving Job Quality This paper describes the state of job quality in the U.S. today and makes the case that improving job quality is a critical part of the agenda for reducing poverty, supporting families, rewarding effort, and expanding opportunity for all. It is part of Opportunity at Work, CLASP’s job quality initiative. Download PDF
• Feb 13, 2013  |  Emily Firgens FMLA: 20 Years of Building Bonds Between Babies and Parents, Time Now For Paid Leave! Last week marked the twentieth anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which has offered millions of workers access to up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. More than 100 million workers have accessed this leave to take care of newborns, family members and themselves. As we celebrate FMLA 20 years later, we are also reminded of how far the U.S. still has to go in offering paid leave and fully supporting the needs of children and families. Read Online
• Feb 07, 2013  |  Liz Ben-Ishai Business Support for the Family and Medical Leave Act The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which enables workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave to care for their own serious illness, a sick family member, or to bond with a new baby, has been used by millions of workers since its passage in 1993. As this important piece of legislation celebrates its 20th anniversary, new data shows that the vast majority of businesses find administering the law easy, and 80 percent of small businesses favor the legislation. But the data also point to a pressing need for paid leave programs, like those in California and New Jersey. In those states, family leave insurance programs have made it possible for employees to take paid family leave, easing the financial burden of caring for oneself and one's family. Research shows that businesses in California have found the state's Paid Family Leave (PFL) program to be good for or have little effect on business. This brief from CLASP demonstrates business support for both the FMLA and paid family leave, while highlighting the pressing need for paid leave. Download PDF
• Feb 01, 2013  |  Work/Life & Job Quality Getting Down to Business Newsletter - February 2013 Getting Down to Business is a CLASP monthly update on the latest news about business and paid leave. Read Online
• Jan 18, 2013  |  Liz Ben-Ishai Chicago City Council Unanimously Passes Strong Anti-Wage Theft Ordinance Workers deserve to be assured they will be paid for the hours they work – this basic proposition seems obvious to most of us. Yet, for millions of workers across the country who are victims of wage theft, something that appears to be a question of simple fairness is out of reach. But there is hope for workers in Chicago, where yesterday City Council passed one of the strongest municipal anti-wage theft laws in the country. In a unanimous vote, the Council passed the law, which will allow the City to revoke or deny licenses to employers that steal their workers’ wages. Read Online
• Jan 18, 2013  |  Liz Ben-Ishai Earned Sick Days: What Consumers Want While many people assume that paid sick days are widely available to all, that is far from the truth for too many workers. This critical workplace protection is important both to workers and consumers. A new poll demonstrates that restaurants that do not offer their employees the opportunity to earn paid sick days do so at their own peril. The survey, put out by the National Consumers League (NCL), found that 92 percent of consumers believe that it is very important or important that the servers and cooks in the restaurants they patronize do not cook or serve while sick. Well over half of respondents agreed on the importance of allowing these workers to earn paid sick days. With consumers expressing a clear preference for fair sick leave policies, the message to business owners is also clear: to satisfy customers, employers must provide restaurant workers with just working conditions, including earned sick days. Policymakers should take note as well. Read Online
• Jan 15, 2013  |  CLASP and Partner Organizations Comments on Inclusion of Work Data in Electronic Health Records These comments were submitted to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Policy Committee at HHS by CLASP and several partner organizations. The comments advocate for the inclusion of industry and occupation data in electronic health records in order to provide useful data for improving job quality. Download PDF
• Dec 19, 2012  |  CLASP Videos: Employers Discuss the Implementation of D.C.'s Earned Sick Days Law In 2008, Washington, D.C. became the second city in the U.S. to pass an earned sick days law. The Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act guarantees some (but not all) D.C. workers the right to accrue paid sick leave. In these video, CLASP speaks with business owners about their experiences implementing the law and what it has meant for their businesses and employees. Read Online
• Jan 07, 2013  |  Liz Ben-Ishai For Safe Food System, Workers Need Earned Sick Days On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration proposed two broad new food safety rules, marking the first major food safety rulemaking since the 1930s. These rules are a major step forward for consumer safety. However, policymakers should take note that a major gap in labor protections for workers who handle our food continues to imperil the safety of our food system: most farmworkers and restaurant workers, as well as other food chain workers, receive no earned sick days, which means many are forced to come to work when sick. This lack of protections is not only unfair to workers, but also 1) dangerous for consumers, who risk infection and illness when they eat food handled by sick workers, 2) bad for businesses, and 3) harmful to the U.S. economy. Read Online
• Dec 18, 2012  |  Liz Ben-Ishai Businesses Can Avoid the High Cost of Workplace Injuries by Offering Earned Sick Days Add one more piece of evidence to the increasingly-difficult-to-ignore body of facts that suggests earned sick days – particularly for lower-wage workers – are crucial to our country’s economic success and families’ economic security. A new study by health economist J. Paul Leigh shows that the economic cost of workplace injuries among low-wage workers amounted to more than $39 billion in 2010. The high cost of workplace injuries among low-wage workers is particularly striking in light of recent research demonstrating that there is a significant correlation between lack of paid sick leave and the incidence of nonfatal occupational injuries. Read Online
• Oct 04, 2011  |  CLASP & CEPR Turnover Calculator: How Much Does Employee Turnover Really Cost? CLASP and the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) have released a turnover calculator, a dynamic new tool that allows employers to calculate how much turnover costs in just 10 questions. Employee turnover costs businesses millions each year, but many employers don't realize exactly how much it's costing their company. Workplace policies that support workers such as paid sick days and paid family leave can help employers reduce turnover and improve their bottom line. Read Online
• Aug 30, 2012  |  Labor Project for Working Families Unions Win It: Paid Time Off Employees may need to be away from work for any number of reasons; illness, family responsibilities, rest, personal business, or other reasons. A critical component of a job is whether it allows workers to take time off without risk of losing pay or a job. Leave from work may come in various forms, depending on the employer. Traditionally, leave has been offered in separate buckets for vacation, illness, or personal days. Paid Time Off (PTO) is an alternative to traditional paid leave plans that consolidate multiple types of leave into a single plan that individuals can draw upon for any reason that they need to be absent from work. PTO for an individual employee is different than a group bank through which employees can access other employees’ donated leave. Download PDF
• Jan 12, 2011  |  Eileen Appelbaum and Ruth Milkman Leaves That Pay: Employer and Worker Experiences with Paid Family Leave in California Download PDF
• Jul 08, 2009  |  Elizabeth Lower-Basch Flexible Work Arrangements and Low-Wage Work In this New America Foundation forum, CLASP Senior Policy Analyst Elizabeth Lower-Basch presented on the implications of unpredictable work schedules for low-wage workers and their families and discussed possible policy responses. Read Online
• Sep 11, 2008  |  Elizabeth Lower-Basch Testimony on Work-Life Challenges This testimony on work-life challenges was given before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the Committee on Ways and Means on September 11, 2008, as part of a hearing on the pressures facing American workers. Download PDF
• Oct 16, 2008  |  Alan Houseman and CLASP staff CLASP Federal Policy recommendations for 2009 and Beyond: An Overview CLASP has developed an extensive federal policy agenda for the next President and Congress directed at improving the lives of low income people. These recommendations were developed before the severe economic crisis that we are in. Download PDF
• Feb 08, 2007  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Here’s a Tip: When Restaurant and Hotel Workers Don’t Have Paid Sick Days, It Hurts Us All Restaurant and hotel workers are typically low-paid employees, and their employers rarely provide them with paid sick days. Instead, these workers are forced to make difficult choices when they or their family members are sick, including coming to work sick—which also presents a public health risk. This fact sheet details both the need for paid sick days for restaurant and hotel workers and some current efforts to ensure that workers have them. Download PDF