Everyone gets sick and everyone deserves time to recover without risking their economic stability. 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.
Marylanders need a basic standard guaranteeing their ability to earn paid, job-protected sick days that will ensure they don’t have to choose between their health and their economic security. This need has become increasingly urgent as the demographics of our families have changed: families now depend on parents working outside the home whether they are single parents or dual-earners. Accordingly, our workplace standards and protections need to adjust to recognize this reality, and to value families in the workplace. The Working Matters coalition will work in 2015 to encourage policymakers to require private sector employers to allow Maryland workers to earn a certain number of annual paid sick days.
