Life Meets Work Blog

Three cities going on 50 states, that is.

The citizens of Milwaukee, Wisconsin voted yesterday to become the third city in the nation to require its employers to provide paid sick leave for all employees.

Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said paid sick leave was an issue that belonged at the national level.

That just might happen.  In his campaign platforms, Barack Obama advocated seven paid sick days for all employees—days you could use if you got sick, or if a child or parent needed your care.

One of my neighbors is losing a renter this month.  Her tenant is moving out to go live with her daughter who has oft-ill child and is in danger of losing her job.  This grandmother still works fulltime herself—a nighttime cleaning job—and will now be commuting over 30 miles to get to work each evening.

These women aren’t asking for a handout.  They’re sacrificing and working hard to keep their jobs and make ends meet.  Seven paid sick days wouldn’t be enough to resolve their particular challenge…but it sure would provide a little relief.

Posted by Jaime

We know most of our major politicians juggle family and work responsibilities, but this year the nomination of Sarah Palin brought that issue to the forefront. 

To date, much discussion has focused on the candidates’ personal work/life situations—Palin bringing her baby to work, Obama keeping in touch with his girls via webcam, Biden raising two young sons as a single working dad.

But despite growing market focus on work/life concerns, the public debates and ad campaigns haven’t been focusing on the issues from a policy perspective.  That’s why the Families and Work Institute organized conference calls to get at the issue.  They spoke with top policy advisors from the Obama and McCain campaigns on September 16th and September 24th, respectively.

Conference transcripts are available.  Here’s an overview of the candidates’ plans regarding key work/life issues—as reflected during the calls:

Obama

• Flexible Work: Create a program to educate businesses on the advantages of flexible work.  Increase federal incentives for telecommuting.  Make the federal government a model employer by adopting flexible work schedules.  Obama is also a co-sponsor of the Working Families Flexibility Act, allowing employees to request flexible work schedules and receive fair consideration.
• Family and Medical Leave Act: Expand the act from businesses with 50 or more employees to 25 or more.  Also expand the act to include elder care needs, up to 24 hours for children’s academic activities, and domestic violence issues. Provide incentives for states to adopt paid leave system—such as California’s Paid Family Leave Insurance Program.
• Sick Leave: Require employers to provide workers seven days of paid sick leave per year that could be use for themselves or for the care of a close family member.

Obama’s representative also addressed issues such as health care coverage, early education, childcare tax credits, and fair pay. More from the Obama/Biden issues pages.

McCain

• Flexible Work: Create a Commission on Workplace Flexibility and Choice to make recommendations to him as President on how to modernize labor laws, retirement planning, and health care portability, and promoting telework.
• Family and Medical Leave: Does not support expanding the program or providing paid leave. Favors relying on market demand for such programs. 
• Sick Leave: Does not support mandating paid sick leave—again in favor of market demand.

McCain’s representatives also discussed issues such as trading overtime pay for compensation time, health care coverage and access, energy policy, early education, and elder care.  More from the McCain/Palin issues pages.

Posted by Jaime.