Monday in Lansing, Michigan advocates for paid sick leave rallied to send a message to legislators to not "mess with a good law."
Their goal was to urge policymakers to leave Michigan's earned paid sick leave law as it is.
“Public Act 338 is state law. Ten other states and nearly three dozen cities and counties have this law on the books. Earned paid sick days are good for working families, employers and public health. Moms and dads who work should be able to take a day off if they get sick or need to care for a loved one. And they should be able to do so without losing pay, or worse, their job,” said Danielle Atkinson, chair of the MI Time to Care Coalition, which collected 380,000 signatures. The overwhelming statewide support for the policy led lawmakers to enact the measure in September.
“We have sent hundreds of thousands of letters, aired radio ads and put up billboards across the state to make sure Michigan families know about this important new benefit the legislature voted into law just a few months ago. We have polled voters in every district across the state. From Marquette to Detroit, there is widespread support for working families to be able to earn paid sick days. It’s hard to believe that Gov. Snyder and this legislature would go against the will of the voters and take away this benefit immediately after approving it,” Atkinson said.
The law already has rules in place for small businesses with 10 or fewer employees, allowing them to cap earned paid leave at 40 hours. Larger businesses can cap the earned paid leave at 72 hours a year.
Peter Ruark, senior policy analysis for the Michigan League for Public Policy, said research in the states that already have earned sick leave policies show that employers don’t face problems when starting it up and people use the days off responsibly.
Nationally, people with access to paid sick time use an average of 2.2 days a year in small firms and 3.1 days a year in bigger businesses, even when they earn many more than that.
Employees treat paid sick time as a form of insurance, to be saved and used when it is truly needed.
“This policy is good for business, too. Earned paid sick days actually increases productivity and reduces the high cost of employee turnover. In fact, business lobbyist opposition is unlikely to be reflective of their members: national survey data collected from current members of the national U.S. Chamber or state or local chambers from 2016 found 73 percent said they support paid sick day policies,” said Ruark.
