In Your State
Find out about the movements for paid sick days and paid family leave in your community.
The California Work & Family Coalition is a collaborative of unions and community groups protecting every Californian’s right to a job and a life. We believe that no one should have to risk their job to take care of themselves or their families. We organize working families, raise public awareness to build family friendly workplaces in California.
The Campaign for a Healthy Denver is a coalition of more than 120 community organizations, labor groups, faith leaders, public health groups, elected officials and businesses. We created the Campaign for a Healthy Denver to put Initiative 300 on the November 2011 Denver ballot because we believe that a paid sick days policy will ensure a healthy community, a productive workforce and a strong economy.
EverybodyBenefits.org is Connecticut’s campaign for paid sick days. Formed by a broad coalition of public health professionals, women’s advocates, union members, faith leaders, small business owners and concerned citizens, the EverybodyBenefits campaign believes that Connecticut needs a basic workplace standard for paid sick days, for the public health and the health of our state’s workers, families and our economy.
Too many Georgia families are forced to choose between earning a paycheck and taking time off from work when they or a family member is ill. Reasonable measures that allow workers limited time off when they need it for their own medical needs or those of a family member strengthen schools, workplaces and families. The Georgia Job/Family Collaborative is made up of more than 50 local and statewide organizations, including health advocacy, women’s groups, faith-based groups, labor, and community groups. Together we build support for public policies that strengthen communities by ensuring that working families can balance their responsibilities at home and on the job. The Collaborative has recently launched a Community Leadership Academy to build leadership and visibility for these issues within communities around the state.
Women Employed leads the Illinois Paid Leave Coalition. The Coalition includes dozens of advocacy groups from across the state working to raise public awareness about the need for paid sick days and communicating with legislators about the need for the proposed Healthy Workplace Act; a bill to establish paid sick days as a new workplace standard in Illinois.
The Maine Working Families Coalition gives voice to the needs and concerns of Maine’s working families. The Coalition is comprised of economic, social, and community justice organizations from across the state, and fights to ensure that the interests of Maine’s working families are considered and valued when policymakers are making decisions that will impact their lives.
In Maryland, more than 700,000 of our neighbors are forced to make impossible choices: go to work sick, send an ill child to school or daycare, or stay home and sacrifice much-needed income or, worse, risk job loss. Working Matters, Maryland’s Campaign for Paid Sick Days, was founded in 2012 by the Job Opportunities Task Force, Public Justice Center, and United Workers. Working Matters is a coalition of more than 60 organizations from throughout the state, including partners from the labor, faith, and business communities, as well as advocates for children, seniors and women, and anti-poverty advocates.
TakeAction Minnesota works with our 26 organizational members and 11,000 individual members to make change that matters to Minnesotans. We believe that access to paid sick leave is an essential part of our work to build a fair economy, and is working with coalition partners and members to raise awareness of the need for paid sick days in our state. We are currently engaged in a statewide public education campaign.
The New Jersey Time to Care coalition is a diverse group of 68 advocacy, union, research, and other community-based organizations working to improve workplace programs and policies that support initiatives that make sure working families have paid time to care.
The New York Paid Leave Coalition raises awareness about the need for a paid sick day standard to cover the 1.3 million NYC workers that risk losing their job or a day’s pay if they stay home when they or their child becomes ill. The coalition includes advocates working on behalf of women, children, the aged, labor, business, low-wage workers, restaurant workers, immigrants, public health advocates, doctors and nurses. Since 2009, the Coalition has organized ten uniquely themed press conferences, a march from Brooklyn to City Hall, a subway poster campaign, polling, door-knocking in the Speaker’s district, studies, petitions, constituent group sign-on letters, email and social-media campaigns which resulted in a veto-proof majority of 35 City Council co-sponsors. In the middle of negotiations with the Speaker’s office in October 2010, Speaker Christine Quinn shelved the bill, preventing a floor-vote, agreeing instead to review the NYC economy every 60 days to determine if a paid sick days law would be burdensome to small business. The Coalition re-launched the paid sick days campaign in 2011 to strengthen support for the bill within the faith, LGBT and labor communities, and obtain feedback from the five borough Chambers of Commerce and Council Members on their concerns about bill language. Our goal is to get a revised bill reintroduced in 2012.
The North Carolina Families Care Campaign is a growing statewide coalition of organizations and individuals who are leading the effort to make North Carolina more family-friendly. Working together, community, religious, labor, healthcare, professional, and family groups are advocating for state policy change that ensure that no workers have to make the difficult choice of caring for an ill family member or risking a day’s pay or even a job.
The Oregon Work and Family Coalition is coordinated by Family Forward Oregon with assistance from Children First for Oregon. The coalition is comprised of organizations representing seniors, women, children, working families, persons of color, faith communities, low-income workers, labor, health professionals, and employers.
The Coalition for Healthy Families and Workplaces is made up of over 109 organizations fighting for paid sick days at the local, state, and national level. The coalition is led by PathWays PA, an organization serving women and families throughout the Greater Philadelphia area. Our partners include labor leaders, religious organizations, LGBTQ advocates, businesses, and other advocacy groups. As a Coalition, we believe that no one should be forced by illness to choose between the job they need and the family they love.
WECareRI, which stands for Workers and Employers Care for Rhode Island, is a new and fast-growing coalition working to win Temporary Caregiver Insurance for Rhode Island’s families. Since 2011, the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island has anchored this coalition as part of a broader effort to make Rhode Island an equitable place for women and girls. Temporary Caregiver Insurance would provide income during an employee’s leave, enabling that family member to manage their responsibilities without jeopardizing his or her family’s economic security.
On September 23, 2011, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn signed the Seattle Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance into law following an 8 to 1 vote by the City Council. The campaign, led by the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce, generated wide earned media coverage and more e-mails and phone calls to Council members than any issue in memory. Public hearings and forums were packed. Workers, small business owners, and school nurses who rarely have a say in policymaking became key spokespeople, making a compelling case that paid sick days standards are necessary to protect public health and rebuild family economic security.
The Paid Sick Days for All coalition is a collaborative of community groups and unions working to ensure that all workers in the District of Columbia can take a day off to care for themselves and their loved ones when they get sick. We believe that no one should have to choose between their health and their jobs.
The Milwaukee Paid Sick Days Coalition is a broad, diverse coalition of groups working together to engage the Milwaukee community in a fight for healthy families and a stronger economy. Led by 9to5 Wisconsin, National Association of Working Women, the coalition includes labor, health groups, civil rights and faith organizations, advocates for children, good jobs, and an end to domestic violence.
