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Ruth Martin's picture

Last month we asked MomsRising members like you to share your experiences with paid sick days - how having access to earned paid sick days has helped, or how NOT having them has hurt.

The response was overwhelming! Moving story after moving story flowed into our offices.

And now we're moving those personal stories around in places where they can make a difference. MomsRising super volunteers are in D.C. TODAY to hand deliver these stories from every state in the nation directly to members of Congress.

These stories make the issue of paid sick days impossible to ignore. The human costs stemming from not having access to earned paid sick days are demonstrated again and again in these stories. For example, one member from Illinois shared the following:

"Having paid sick days would have helped me tremendously when I was an hourly employee.  Not having them meant that I had to postpone taking my kids to the doctor until Saturday openings were available.  One time, not having paid sick days resulted in my daughter having a serious ear infection, which ultimately affected her hearing.  At the time I was barely making ends meet and could not afford to take a day off to take her to the doctor.  She started complaining of ear pain on a Thursday, but did not have  a high fever.  I scheduled an appointment with her doctor for the following Saturday.  By Friday evening, we were in the ER because her ear drum burst and her ear was leaking fluid. This is just one story that describes how badly I needed paid sick days at work, and didn't have them.”

Make sure your members of Congress read the stories of moms from their state when the stories are delivered today. Send a quick note now telling them to be on the lookout for the MomsRising book of stories on their desk in D.C. today: http://action.momsrising.org/go/7/292?akid=2224.1819415.YxAUi9&t=6

By helping get the word out, you'll be doing us all a favor.  Paid sick days are good for 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. Research shows that the costs of replacing workers, including advertising for, interviewing and training new employees often far outweighs the cost of retaining employees by offering paid sick days. [1] Additionally, presenteeism, when workers come to work sick, costs the nationally economy about $180 billion a year in lost productivity versus absenteeism.  [2]

Don't forget to back up our on-the-ground volunteers with one-click and send a message to your representatives to read this important book of MomsRising members’ personal stories! http://action.momsrising.org/go/7/292?akid=2224.1819415.YxAUi9&t=8

P.S. We’re asking Members of Congress to blog about paid sick days in response to your stories. Check back here to see what they say! http://action.momsrising.org/go/275?akid=2224.1819415.YxAUi9&t=11

P.P.S. Check out the story book here: http://action.momsrising.org/go/291?akid=2224.1819415.YxAUi9&t=13

[1] Christine Siegwarth Meyer, et al, Work-Family Benefits: Which Ones Maximize Profits?, Journal of Managerial Issues, vol. 13, no. 1, Spring 2001.

[2] Ron Goetzal, et al, Health Absence, Disability, and Presenteeism Cost Estimates, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, April 2004.


The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of MomsRising.org.

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