Paid Sick Leave for All: A Case for the Healthy Families Act Taylor Daily, Shannon Delfini, Nicole Kiraly, and Kelly Lussier Loyola University Maryland Global Studies Program Senior Seminar

The Global Issue in Question

Gender Inequality

How can we address gender disparities in leadership positions?

- Faculty/undergraduate mentor/mentee program But how could we expand our scope beyond Loyola’s campus? - By looking at gender disparities in professional leadership (i.e. CEOs) What are the contributing factors that keep women from advancing further in their careers?

- One factor: women are disproportionately burdened with childcare and care for the health of their families, causing them to take more days off from work, which negatively impacts their career trajectories.

Possible Areas of Advocacy

Some of our ideas were to address… - Gender norms and their implications for how women in power are perceived.

- How a lack of women in leadership position breeds competition amongst women.

- How male-dominant fields are reproduced through the gender ratio of faculty on college campuses.

- The lack of companies who provide childcare in-house.

- Maternity and paternity leave policies.

Final Decision: A Focus on Women in the Work Force

- How can we use this project to advocate for more gender equity in the workplace?

- We should use our interest and experience in politics to advocate for a bill…but what bill?

- We reached a consensus that we all really cared about the lack of any federally mandated family leave policy.

- Paid sick leave is not exactly the same as a family leave policy, but it has similar positive impacts women in the workplace similarly. And a bill to federally mandate paid sick leave was just introduced in the House of Representatives!

Perspectives for Analysis The Healthy Families Act Our Action

Sick Leave as a Basic Labor Right

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 23: - (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work

and to protection against unemployment.

- (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and

favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his

family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplement, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

Also included in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and a basic tenet of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

State protection of paid sick leave is a norm, and the U.S. is not in line with its peer states!

Advantages of Gender Neutrality

- Two key aspects of parental leave policies: (1) the level of support provided to parents and (2) the degree to which the policies promote an egalitarian distribution of childcare duties between fathers and mothers.

- Gender neutral policies allow individual families to determine which parent focuses on childcare and domestic duties and which focuses on their job at any given time. - Inclusive of homosexual and single-parent households.

Benefits for Children

- Child health and development positively correlates with availability of sick leave

International Leave Policies

- 15 other countries that are economically competitive with the US, all have paid sick leave including Australia, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, and Singapore

Sexual Violence and Paid Leave

- Maternity and paternity leave policies.

- Nearly 2 million women suffer from injuries related to domestic violence every year - In 2013, 268,000 women were raped or sexually assaulted, 1 million women are stalked each year - Female victims of domestic abuse are forced to miss nearly 8 million days of paid work - Annual cost to businesses productivity due to domestic violence is estimated at $900 million

What is it?

- Bill introduced in the House by Rep. DeLauro.

- Versions of this bill have been brought before Congress numerous times, but never reached a vote.

What does it provide?

- To employees of businesses with 15+ employees, 7 paid sick days per year.

- To employees of businesses with <15 employees, 7 unpaid sick days per year.

- Use for personal sickness, a child’s illness, preventative measures, and recovery from domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault.

What are the advantages?

- For Low-Income Workers: Currently 80% of low-income workers who need paid sick leave most do not work for employers who provide it. Provides them with job security and the pay that sustains their standard of living.

- For women: Gender-neutral policy that allows for women to decide if they or their partner will stay home with a sick child.

- For the Health Care System: Individuals are more likely to seek medical assistance before an illness reaches threatening levels. This reduces the unnecessary health care costs accrued by taxpayers.

- For Survivors of Gender-Based Crimes: Allows for the chance to heal, gain emotional or psychological assistance, and to keep their job.

- For Children: Fewer children will go to school sick and infect other students.

- For the Economy: Cities that have enacted these policies report minimal or no economic impact on individual companies or the aggregate economy. Boosts retention rates for companies, which allows them to continually benefit from the investment they have made in their employees and retain their talent.

- Created a form letter to be sent to members of the US House of Representatives.

- Tabled outside of Boulder during meal times and conducted outreach into our respective communities to gain signatures in support of this letter.

- Shared the petition in our classes and on Facebook.

- Sending the letter to each signers’ representative on their behalf.

• • • • • • Adams, Adrienne E., et al. "The impact of intimate partner violence on low-income women’s economic well-being the mediating role of job stability." Violence against women 18.12 (2012): 1345-1367.

Earle, Alison, Zitha Mokomane and Jody Heymann (2011). ​“International Perspectives on Work Family Policies: Lessons from the World's Most Competitive Economies.” Future of Children 21(2) 191-210. Elizabeth Kennedy, interview by Shannon Delfini and Taylor Daily, March 23, 2015.

Gornick, Janet C., Rebecca Ray, and John Schmitt (2009). “ Parental Leave Policies in 21Countries: Assessing Generosity and Gender Equality.” Center for Economic and Policy

Research. 1-23.

Human Rights Watch (2011). “Failing its Families: Lack of Paid Leave and Work-Family Supports in the U.S.” Human

Rights Watch. 1-79.

Kennedy, Elizabeth (2015). “No Evidence Paid Sick Days Hurt Business.” The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed sick-leave-20150225-story.html.

Taylor Daily Shannon Delfini Nicole Kiraly Kelly Lussier

REFERENCES CONTACT

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Special thanks to Dr. Elizabeth Kennedy for consulting on this project as well as Professor Mendez and our entire seminar class for their constructive criticism and support!

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