President Obama orders paid sick days for government contractors

The Obama Administration has said that expanding paid leave is a top priority, and the president has made good on that pledge by signing an executive order on Labor Day requiring that federal contractors provide their employees with paid sick leave.

It is estimated over 44 million private sector workers about 40 percent of the workforce – do not have access to paid sick leave, according to the White House.

During his speech, Obama called on states to pass laws that expand paid sick leave to all workers.

“They understand that it helps with recruitment and retention”.

“Mandatory paid leave is a great benefit for workers whose employers offer it”, Mozloom said, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The executive order will require federal contractors one hour of paid leave to employees working on federal contracts, whether full or part time, up to 56 hours a year.

President Barack Obama skewered Republicans Monday for failing to “walk the walk” on their promises to middle-class Americans. Workers will be able to use the time if they are ill or to care for sick family members.

In a statement released Monday, the White House similarly informed businesses that the new mandate would “benefit employers” by helping them hold onto employees.

“We are still the only developed country in the world that doesn’t have a paid leave policy, and that needs to change if we want to remain competitive”, Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House adviser, said Sunday on a conference call with reporters.

The push for paid leave has gained momentum across the country, although it tends to be in Democratic-leaning states and cities.

Since federal contractors tend to do well and want to hire good workers, we can assume that any workers have paid leave.

The move comes among a series of executive actions the president has directed toward federal workers over the past year, including an order to raise the minimum wage for employees under federal contracts to $10.10.

The hodgepodge of laws “absolutely does make it difficult to comply and … harder to have one policy that fits all the jurisdictions in which you work”, said Christopher B. Kaczmarek, a shareholder with law firm Littler Mendelson P.C.in Boston.

Obama said it was up to Congress to enact those national policies, but ‘where I have the power to act, I will’.