Work & Family Balance Campaign
New Jersey Time To Care Coalition
NJCA and the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University have organized the NJ Time to Care Coalition, a 70-member coalition consisting of community, labor, women's, civic, research, citizen, family and child advocacy groups that are dedicated to the passage of Work & Family Balance issues, like Family Leave Insurance and Guaranteed Paid Sick Days for All, both at the state and federal level. To see the complete list of organizations, visit njtimetocare.rutgers.edu.
Join the New Jersey Time to Care Coalition, either as an organization or an individual. To find out the date of our next meeting, send us a story telling us how Family Leave Insurance or Paid Sick Days could have helped or has helped you (if your employer already provides them), or get more info on the Time to Care Coalition, please contact Atif Malik by phone 973-643-8800 ext. 30 or by email at atif@njcitizenaction.org, or visit njtimetocare.rutgers.edu.
Healthy Families Act
Nearly half (48%) of private-sector workers in the US don't have a single paid sick day to care for themselves when they are sick — even less Americans have paid sick days that they can use to care for a sick family member, i.e., a child that needs to stay home from school. Although a dozen states around the country are considering paid sick days initiatives this year, there is currently no state of federal law that guarantees paid sick days for workers.
No worker should be forced to risk their job to take care of themselves or their families. Yet, nearly half of private-sector workers do not have a single paid sick day to care for themselves or a family member when they are ill.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends if you have a fever and you're sick or your children are sick, don't go to work and don't go to school. However, when workers get sick — or need to take care of ill children, or take elderly parents to medical appointments — millions lose pay or even risk losing their jobs.
The lack of paid sick days is a major public health concern. Without paid sick days, working people have no choice but to go to work sick, risking their own health and the spread of illness. Such shortsighted policy is also a threat to our economy as studies have shown that employee "presenteeism" (when sick workers go to work) cost U.S. businesses billions more annually than employee absenteeism.
NJCA and the NJ Time to Care Coalition are currently urging Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act (soon to be re-introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Rosa DeLauro) in order to establish a basic workplace standard of paid sick days so that workers aren't forced to risk their jobs or paychecks to care for their health.
The Healthy Families Act would guarantee workers up to seven paid sick days a year to recover from their own illness or to care for a sick family member, and provides paid sick time to recover from or seek assistance related to an incidence of domestic violence, stalking or sexual assault.
Fact Sheets on the Healthy Families Act:
- General Healthy Families Act Fact Sheet.
- Paid Sick Days In a Bad Economy.
- Swine Flu and Healthy Families Act.
TAKE ACTION NOW! (COMING SOON) Visit NJCA's Action Center to email your members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor the Healthy Families Act. (Web-action will be up shortly)
For more information about the Healthy Families Act, contact Atif Malik by email at atif@njcitizenaction.org or by phone at 973-643-8800.
Victory!
Governor Corzine Signs Family Leave Insurance into Law!
WE DID IT! On May 2, 2008, after twelve years of advocacy, Citizen Action and the NJ Time to Care Coalition realized a great victory when Governor Jon Corzine signed Family Leave Insurance legislations, A-873, into law and made New Jersey only the third state in the nation to enact one of the most far-reaching and progressive workplace reforms in many, many decades.
Given that at least one million NJ workers (and probably more) don't have a single paid day off from their job and 40% of all low-wage workers don't have a single sick day, this legislation will make a significant and real difference in the lives of NJ's working families and their loved ones.
Family Leave Insurance is 100% worker-funded. Eligible NJ employees began making a small paycheck contribution (0.09% of their normal paycheck) on January 1, 2009. All NJ workers who contribute to the FLI program will have the opportunity to receive 2/3 of their normal pay (capped at $548/week in 2009) for up to six weeks in any 12 month period. Employees will be able to apply for FLI benefits through the NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development starting July 1, 2009.
NJCA and the NJ Time to Care Coalition would like to thank the thousands of supporters who helped make this victory happen by sending over 100,000 letters to our elected officials over the last year and a half urging them to create a NJ Family Leave Insurance program.
We would also like to thank Governor Corzine for his continued support, the Senate and Assembly sponsors and all the legislators who stood firmly behind New Jersey's working families and voted Yes on Family Leave Insurance (A873/S786)!
For more information on NJ's new Family Leave Insurance program, visit the Department of Labor's FLI website at lwd.state.nj.us/labor/fli/fliindex.html, or contact Atif Malik by email at atif@njcitizenaction.org or by phone at 973-643-8800.
"Americans Can't Afford to Get Sick" Report
Report Assesses State and Federal Sick Leave Policies: 28 States Earned Grade of "D" or Worse
A study entitled Get Well Soon: Americans Can't Afford to be Sick, released on June 15, 2004 by the National Partnership for Women & Families and New Jersey Citizen Action, finds that not a single state is doing enough to guarantee paid sick leave to employees. Almost 59 million Americans, including almost half the private sector, do not even have one paid sick day. Under current New Jersey law, employees who are temporarily disabled for medical reasons, including pregnancy and childbirth, receive partial wage replacement in the form of temporary disability insurance (TDI) benefits. In addition, New Jersey provides 15 days of sick leave and three days of personal leave to state employees.
The report gives New Jersey a grade of "B–" for paid sick days. Therefore, New Jersey's temporary disability insurance system, as successful as it has been, must evolve to accommodate the changes of the workforce and family lifestyles.
New Jersey is not alone in failing to give its workers adequate paid sick days. The National Partnership study finds that while California is far ahead of other states in giving workers family leave benefits, it receives only a grade of "B+". At the same time, just six states earned a "B" ranking, while more than half the states received grades of "D" or below.
Nor is the federal government setting a high enough standard, receiving a grade of just "C-." It provides its workers 13 paid sick days a year - relatively generous compared to the private sector but no better than what many states offer their own employees. And the federal government lags behind several states in that it does not require private employers to provide any paid sick leave.
In addition, a related study by The Global Project at Harvard University finds the U.S. lags far behind the rest of the world in giving workers paid sick days. One hundred thirty nine nations provide paid sick leave for short or long term illnesses and 117 of those nations guarantee a week or more of paid sick leave per year.