Legislators pushing for statewide sick leave bill in Olympia

Does your boss let you take paid sick leave? He might have to pretty soon.

Under the Capitol Dome in Olympia, two legislators are trying to pass a paid sick leave bill that would apply statewide.

One of them is Representative Laurie Jenkins, (D-Tacoma), who says even though Seattle requires it, and Tacoma is considering it, 40 percent of workers in this state don’t get a single day of paid sick leave.

Her bill would let employees earn at least a week of paid leave, except for businesses with four employees or fewer.

As for the critics who say some businesses simply cannot afford to provide sick leave, Rep. Jenkins tells KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz that a study by the University of Washington shows the actual impact on employers is minor:

“The direct cost to [employers] are very small. They’re less than 1 percent of the payroll according to the business owners who’ve actually implemented this in Seattle. There have been numerous studies in jurisdictions with sick leave that businesses that voluntarily do this benefit from increased productivity and moral and decreased turnover,” says Jenkins.

She says there are also health benefits for the public when sick workers are able to stay home.

“The Centers for Disease Control have said that somewhere around 80 percent of the Norovirus that is transmitted in the United States is transmitted from sick food workers.”

As for whether the bill has any chance of passing, Jenkins is hopeful.

“We do have a lot of cosponsors on the bill. I was very happy to hear that in the Senate they have bi-partisan support on the bill that they’re filing. So I think that we’ve got a really good shot between the House and the Senate this year of passing this bill and sending it to the governor,” she says.

A similar measure passed last year in the Democrat-controlled House, but died in the Senate.