Resources & Publications: Paid Sick Days

• Apr 17, 2013  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Testimony on Working Families Flexibility Act As the Committee on Education and the Workforce considers The Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1406) sponsored by Representative Martha Roby (R-AL), CLASP urges the Committee not to move measure forward. A mission of the Committee is to protect the workforce; the bill would add a new wage rule that raises the specter of greater vulnerability for the non-exempt workforce. Since enforcement of basic wage rules is woefully under resourced, we need to fix that first. Download PDF
• Apr 09, 2013  |  Jodie Levin Epstein and Dr. Eileen Appelbaum Interview Protocol for MA Business Interviews on Earned Paid Sick Time Surveys of employers about their sick days' practices and about their views regarding a new law can be helpful in a city or state campaign. We were asked by Massachusetts' advocates to come up with this survey tool. We hope advocates will adapt it to suit their particular needs. Download PDF
• 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
• 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 Better Businesses and Better Workplaces: The Role of Comprehensive Business Certification Increasingly, businesses are seeking out certifications as tools to assess their impact and verify that their practices are consistent with their values. For job quality advocates, who are increasingly recognizing the crucial role of business support in successful campaigns, both certifying organizations and certified businesses can be valuable partners. This issue brief provides job quality advocates with a primer on the nuts and bolts of the certification movement and suggests ways advocates can foster fruitful relationships between the movements. Download PDF
• Feb 27, 2013  |  Liz Ben-Ishai Implementing Earned Sick Days Laws: Learning from Seattle's Experience This issue brief draws upon Seattle's experience implementing its Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance to delineate best practices for implementing such laws. Seattle passed its earned sick days law in September 2011. The task of implementation in Seattle fell to the city's Office for Civil Rights (SOCR). CLASP spoke with SOCR staff to learn about their innovative approaches to outreach, implementation, and enforcement. 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
• Aug 30, 2012 Unions Win It: Paid Time Off Download PDF
• May 02, 2012 Letter of Support for Illinois Paid Sick Days Law SB 128 Download PDF
• Oct 04, 2011  |  CLASP & CEPR 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
• Nov 15, 2010  |  U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Paid Sick Leave in the United States This issue of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Program Perspectives takes a closer look at paid sick leave benefits, including both the percentage of employees with access to paid sick leave benefits and employer costs for sick leave. Download PDF
• Nov 10, 2010  |  New York State Paid Family Leave Coalition Healthy Businesses Need Healthy People The New York State Paid Family Leave Coalition created a fact sheet outlining paid sick days can enhance a company's bottom line. Download PDF
• Nov 10, 2010  |  District of Columbia Department of Employment Services Official Notice: Accrued Safe and Sick Leave Act of 2008 The District of Columbia Department of Employment Services official notice explaining the Accrued Safe and Sick Leave Act of 2008 for employees and employers. Download PDF
• Nov 10, 2010  |  US Chamber of Commerce Sample Time Off Policies Sample company policy statements for holiday and vacation leave. Download File
• Sep 09, 2010  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Profitable: Flexible Workplace for ALL Workers This audio conference will give you a chance to hear about employers who operate differently and help all employees perform well; you'll also learn what happens when low wage workers are not given that chance. Listen to the audio. Just click below. Additional resources are available. Read Online   |   Download Audio
• Apr 01, 2010  |  Eric Odier-Fink Letter of Support: Justice Clothing A letter of support to members of Congress for the passage the Healthy Families Act from Eric Odier-Fink, a small business owner of Justice Clothing in Bangor, Maine. Read Online   |   Download PDF
• Feb 01, 2010  |  Thomas E. Geidt California Supreme Court Rules That Uncapped Sick Leave Policies Are Not Covered By California's "Kin Care" Law A client alert from law offices of Paul Hastings explaining that the California Supreme Court has issued a significant ruling on the scope of California's "kin care" law, Labor Code 233, which entitles employees in certain circumstances to use paid sick leave to care for ill family members. The Court held that when an employer's sick leave policy does not provide a measurable, banked number of paid sick days in a calendar year, the kin care law does not apply. McCarther v. Pacific Telesis Group. Paul Hastings represented Pacific Telesis and the other defendants in the case. Read Online   |   Download PDF
• Jan 29, 2010  |  Lexer Quamie Award-Winning Employers: State by State CLASP has compiled a state-by-state listing of firms that have been recognized through national awards for their workplace policies. Read Online
• Sep 30, 2009  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Healthy Families Act: Advocates' Answers to Businesses' Frequently Asked Questions This document provides a distilled version of the Healthy Families Act in a Question and Answer form and is aimed at dispelling any myths about the legislation. Download PDF
• Sep 30, 2009  |  CLASP Paid Sick Days: A Comparison of Three Cities' Laws and Pending Federal Legislation A comparison table of the bills in San Francisco, Washington DC, Milwaukee, and the federal Healthy Families Act. Download PDF
• Sep 30, 2009  |  CLASP Paid Sick Days: Reaching Out to Businesses to Say YES to a Level Playing Field Paid Sick Days: Reaching Out to Businesses to Say YES to a Level Playing Field is a resource guide to help state and local advocates recruit business leaders, owners, and trade groups to help gain support for paid sick day's legislation. Download PDF
• Sep 11, 2008  |  Elizabeth Lower-Basch Families and Workplaces in the Twenty-First Century: Multiple Roles Place Heavy Demands on American Workers 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
• Mar 08, 2007  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Responsive Workplaces: The Business Case for Employment that Values Fairness and Families More and more, working parents have dual--and dueling--responsibilities on the job and at home. Some employers have adapted and made their workplaces responsive to working parents, offering, for example, flexible scheduling and paid time off. Often, such measures have benefited the employers, too, demonstrating that businesses can do well by doing good. This article--reprinted from Mother Load, a special report from The American Prospect on family-friendly workplaces--addresses the business case for workplaces that respond to families' needs. 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
• Nov 01, 2006  |  Thomas E. Geidt New San Francisco Law Mandates Paid Sick Leave for Illnesses of Employees and Family Members Read Online   |   Download PDF
• Oct 31, 2006  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein with Laura Boyd Paid Sick Days Legislation: A Legislator's Guide Unlike most of the nations of the world, the U.S. has no national paid sick days policy. But lawmakers are starting to address the issue at the local and state levels. This guide, a joint publication of CLASP and the Women Legislators' Lobby, is intended to help legislators think through the provisions that make up paid sick days legislation. It identifies ten primary issues to consider when moving from a hypothetical idea to concrete legislation, and it offers several possible options for addressing each. Download PDF
• Jul 20, 2006  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Getting Punched: The Job and Family Clock...It's Time for Flexible Work for Workers of All Wages Get the facts on the dramatic labor market changes that result in more and more workers facing dual and dueling responsibilities -- those at work and those at home. Businesses that recognize this tension address it through responsive scheduling and paid time off; and, these businesses benefit from cost savings when they do. Getting Punched suggests 10 ways that government should get more involved in promoting responsive workplaces for workers of all wages. It's about time. Download PDF
• Jul 10, 2006  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Get the Prescription: Child Care Workers Need Paid Sick Days This handy fact sheet lays out the importance of paid sick days to child care workers. In Congress, states, and cities, initiatives are arising to establish paid sick days laws so that workers who are sick or need to care for a family member do not lose a job or wages if they take some days off. About half of workers in the U.S. are without paid sick days. For child care workers, the lack of paid sick days is particularly problematic. Child care workers have a double whammy reason to support paid sick days: these workers need it not only for themselves but also for the parents of the children in their care; otherwise, parents with sick children who face losing a day's wages may try to leave a sick child with the child care worker, despite any rules that say otherwise. Download PDF
• Jan 04, 2005  |  Jodie Levin-Epstein Taking the Next Step: What Can the U.S. Learn about Sick Leave from New Zealand? This policy brief, based on the report High Wire Act and the second in the Work-Life Balance Series, looks at what New Zealand has done to provide paid sick days for its workers. Drawing from the New Zealand experience, the brief then provides recommendations on what United States policymakers can do to ensure that workers have paid sick days. Download PDF