Senate Appropriations Committee includes $10 million for state paid family leave programs:
In its draft budget, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has included $10 million to help states cover start-up costs for paid family leave programs. It’s not the full $50 million that President Obama proposed, and the federal budget process isn’t finished yet, but this is a promising step for working Americans. So what does this mean for the status of Washington’s stalled paid family leave program? | Read more
Grocery workers’ sick deal
From Nicole Brodeur in the Seattle Times:
Tasha West-Baker can make you a latte, slice your lunch meat or make you a cake at Safeway.
And she could make your entire family ill for days.
West-Baker doesn’t get paid sick days from the grocery chain, where she has worked for seven years. She works four days a week to support three kids on her own. Just staying home with a cold for three days could cost her 75 percent of her weekly paycheck.
That means that when she’s sick, she’s at Safeway – at the Starbucks kiosk, at the deli, in the bakery – and sending her sickness home with our groceries.
More To Read
March 24, 2025
Remembering former Washington State House Speaker Frank Chopp
Rep. Chopp was Washington state’s longest-serving Speaker of the House
February 11, 2025
The rising cost of health care is unsustainable and out of control
We have solutions that put people over profits
January 29, 2025
Who is left out of the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act?
Strengthening job protections gives all workers time they need to care for themselves and their families