Pandemic intensifies Va. sick leave debate
Laura Vozzella, The Washington Post
Dec. 24, 2020
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Del. Elizabeth R. Guzman, a Democrat representing Prince William County, is one of the lead proponents of requiring employers in Virginia to offer paid sick leave.photo for The Washington Post by Timothy C. Wright.
RICHMOND, Va. - When the General Assembly reconvenes next month, lawmakers will resume their battle over whether to require employers to offer paid sick leave - a debate colored by both the coronavirus pandemic and the 2021 governor s race.
About 1.2 million Virginians have no paid sick time or family leave, according to a November study by the Shift Project, which tracks data from hourly service workers. Some Democrats in the state legislature have pushed for years to make most employers provide the benefit, which is required in Washington D.C. and 14 states, including Maryland.
City of Pittsburgh Enacts Ordinance Mandating Paid Time Off Related to COVID-19 lexology.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lexology.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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On December 9, 2020, Mayor Bill Peduto signed into law an ordinance covering employers with 50 or more employees and requiring them to provide paid time off for employees working in the city who miss work due to reasons related to COVID-19. The ordinance amended the city’s 2015 “Paid Sick Days Act” by adding an additional chapter called “Temporary Covid-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave.” Highlights of the ordinance are as follows:
TO WHOM DOES THE LAW APPLY?
The law applies to employers with 50 or more employees, as long as at least one of the employees works in the city of Pittsburgh.
Only a third of workers at the largest service industry employers in Virginia have access to paid sick leave, according to a report by researchers at Harvardâs Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy and the University of California San Francisco.
Advocacy groups, who hope the finding will propel the General Assembly to pass long-debated paid time off legislation, called the report particularly notable because it contradicts arguments made by business groups, who have told lawmakers most large employers already provide the benefit.
âWe might assume that big firms with extensive HR systems and potentially deep pockets of course already provide paid sick leave, but thatâs not true,â said Daniel Schneider, an author on the report and professor of public policy and sociology at Harvard University. âLarge shares of workers at these firms report they donât have access at their jobs.â