The Healthy Families Act - The Facts

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The Key Facts are:

FACT: Workers who come in sick cost our national economy $180 billion annually in lost productivity. This costs employers, on average, an astonishing $255 per employee, per year - - far more than the cost of absenteeism and medical disability benefits. (Source: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, April 2004)

FACT: 24% of all parents with children younger than one year old do not earn any paid leave. (Source: The Urban Institute, April 2004)

FACT: A staggering 94 million working Americans do not have paid sick days to use to care for a sick child. (Source: Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2004)

FACT: Nearly half of all private sector U.S. Workers (47 percent) are not provided any paid sick time. (Sources: Institute for Women's Policy Research & U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

That is why we need the West Virginia Healthy Families Act.

This new, proposed state law would make our state one of the most family-friendly in the nation. The Act would require businesses with more than 25 workers to allow full-time employees to earn up to 7 paid sick days per year. Part-time workers could earn a smaller, pro-rated number of paid sick days depending on the number of hours they work.

When you look at the startling facts, you can see it makes sense to allow more West Virginia workers to earn paid sick days for their families.




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