19 May 2011

"ICYMI Thursdays" - Paid Sick Leave

This is the first of what is intended to be a weekly In Case You Missed It post or story or other bit of information.

One of the important issues being debated by the Connecticut Legislature is Paid Sick Days which is also being discussed on the Federal level in Congress as the Healthy Families Act, introduced by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of the 3rd CD.  You can research the discussion through the links provided or by using the search feature at CT News Junkie.

What caught my eye this week was contained in a newsletter from the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW). The newsletter included a reprint of Executive Director Teresa Younger's Mother's Day Letter to the Editor from last week.  It was printed in the Hartford Courant.

Giving Mothers What They Really Deserve

Printed on 5/9/2011

We agree with The Courant’s Mother’s Day editorial that “to give mothers the recognition they deserve really calls for something big and dramatic.” But instead of a place on Mount Rushmore, cards and flowers, as The Courant suggests, we would like to suggest this big, dramatic and sensible “gift”: paid sick leave legislation.

One cannot help but notice the cynical juxtaposition of the two editorials: praise mothers for taking care of “skinned knees” in the one, while in the other, denying them the time off to do just that. It’s hard to take care of those knees — and the larger ills they represent — when one is worried about losing pay and possibly even a livelihood. Study after study has shown that paid sick leave is good for business, and it honors mothers — and all workers — 365 days a year, not just one symbolic day in May.

-Teresa Younger, Executive Director
Permanent Commission on the Status of Women

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