It’s the season of giving – and if you’re like me and haven’t started your holiday shopping, we’ve got the perfect gift suggestion for you: Paid sick days for all our friends and family in Connecticut!

Paid sick days - a gift all CT families can use!

Because Governor-elect Dan Malloy not only supports paid sick days, but campaigned on the issue, we’ve got the best chance ever of making this dream a reality in 2011.

But we can’t do it without you! Legislators are coming back to Hartford in January and they need to know why paid sick days are a priority for Connecticut parents and families.

Take a minute, right now, to share why paid sick days are so important to your family and we’ll compile your notes and hand deliver them to Connecticut legislators on January 5 - the first day of the legislative session.  http://action.momsrising.org/letter/CT_psd_12_10/

What would the paid sick days bill do?

Paid sick days would help protect the health of our children and families and also provide real economic security to some of the most vulnerable working families: forty percent of all workers in Connecticut have no paid sick days. [1] And even worse, workers without paid sick days are concentrated in the service industry -- the people who cook and prepare our food, look after our children and care for the sick and elderly. When those workers have to work sick, it isn't healthy for any of us.

Why are paid sick days so critical?

We all know how fast the flu can travel through a workplace, school, or child care center; but in today's economy, folks without paid sick days often simply can't afford to miss work. So, they're likely to unwittingly infect their coworkers and their community at large when they go to work.

In these tough economic times, no one should have to choose between their job and their family’s health.

Paid sick days are good for working families, for public health, and for business. Paid sick days would help contain health care costs through prevention, early detection, and treatment of illness. With paid sick days, families will not be forced to send sick children to school where they will likely infect classmates and teachers; workers with paid sick days would not spread illness to their coworkers and customers. Providing paid sick days turns out to be smart business too because it increases productivity at work and reduces costly turnover.

It’s easy to give legislators all the data about why paid sick days are good for public health and the economy, but what really makes the difference are the personal stories about how having paid sick days has helped or not having them has been a burden for families.

Take a moment now to share why paid sick days are a priority for your family. http://action.momsrising.org/letter/CT_psd_12_10/

We’ll compile these stories and hand deliver them to Connecticut legislators on January 5 – the opening day of the legislative session.