Too many Maine workplaces do not provide adequate paid sick leave for their employees.  A bill currently pending in the Maine Legislature would help fix this problem by providing paid sick leave to up to 137,000 Maine workers. 

As amended, LD 1665 provides sick leave to workers who have been with an employer for at least 180 calendar days.  Small employers (those with fewer than fifty employees) are exempt.  Eligible workers will earn one hour of paid sick leave time for every eighty hours of time they work up to a total of twenty-six hours per year. 

The economic security and job stability that accompanies paid sick leave will yield higher productivity and greater economic activity as workers increase their spending because their confidence in their economic situation and potential future earnings has grown.  Enactment of LD 1665 would be a major step in the right direction!

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research has undertaken a thoughtful analysis of the benefits of paid sick leave, including benefits to employers.  LD 1665, as originally proposed, for example, would have provided a net savings of $4.18 per worker per week. 

Enabling workers to remain at home when they or their family members are sick is not only right for workers’ health and morale, it also makes economic sense for workers and their families, employers, and Maine’s overall economy.  The Joint Standing Committee on Labor will meet to vote on Thursday, March 11.  Let’s hope LD 1665 passes with flying colors!  At this time of great economic uncertainty and anxiety, paid sick leave is just what the doctor ordered to improve the lives of tens of thousands of Maine workers and their families.