Paid Sick Days: Part of a National Movement

As Senate President Libby Mitchell is quoted in the recent SeaCoastOnline piece: Maine Sick Days Bill Faces Battle,  “The Maine Chamber of Commerce came out with their guns blazing…But you know, the issue is not going to go away.”

And that is a point we are seeing again and again in this campaign to pass paid sick days: that this important legislation is not something that is going away. Why? Put clearly: because it is the right thing to do.

It seems to be the consensus among business owner and citizens a like that that paid sick days “is just the right thing to do.” In a Feb 12th letter to the Bangor Daily News, Restaurant Owner Mark Horton commented that, “I am confident that when all is said and done paid sick days only help my bottom line with decreased turnover and increased productivity. And more importantly, it is the right thing to do for the people who make my success possible.” This sentiment was reiterated again in a February 11 letter in the Lewiston Sun Journal, Lewiston resident Dot Treadwell cites the burden imposed on a family when parents are “forced to choose between caring for themselves or a sick child and losing their livelihood.”

This message is clear across the state of Maine, and across the nation as more and more states and municipalities are rushing to introduce this important legislation. Click here to see an interactive map and description of states and municipalities across the country that are working on a paid sick days campaigns. Maine is working along side: Alaska, Montana, California, New Hampshire, Colorado, New York City, Connecticut, North Carolina Illinois, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont and Minnesota to enact paid sick days legislation. Maine is following in the footsteps of Milwaukee, San Francisco and Washington D.C. as these cities already have paid sick days legislation on the books.