NATIONAL FOCUS
Nationwide Push For Paid Sick Leave Gains Momentum
The presidential campaign is heating up, but a different
campaign is also rapidly gaining momentum: the campaign for
paid sick leave. This issue has largely been a sleeping giant
these past few years while attention has been focused on
minimum wage legislation. Since the 2007 passage of the federal
minimum wage law, national attention has been shifting toward
paid sick leave.
No state currently requires employers to provide paid sick
leave, although San Francisco and Washington DC do, and many
states are considering this issue. For example, Ohio voters are
likely to decide this issue in the fall and the California
Assembly approved a paid sick leave bill this spring, although
it has since been sidetracked because of its expense. A bill
has also been introduced in Congress, but has been moving
slowly. Demonstrating the increasing
