Brown signs California law boosting paid family-leave benefits, By Patrick McGreevy, April 11, 2016, Los Angeles Times: “Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed a bill expanding California’s pioneering family-leave law to help more low-income workers and provide better benefits. ‘It’s a real pleasure to be able to sign another bill that helps ordinary Californians, working men and women,’ Brown said. The action comes 15 years after California became the first state in the nation to guarantee workers paid time off to care for a new child or ailing family member…”
Tag: Employers
Health Insurance and Low-Income Employees
Many low-income workers say ‘no’ to health insurance, By Stacy Cowley, October 19, 2015, New York Times: “When Billy Sewell began offering health insurance this year to 600 service workers at the Golden Corral restaurants that he owns, he wondered nervously how many would buy it. Adding hundreds of employees to his plan would cost him more than $1 million — a hit he wasn’t sure his low-margin business could afford. His actual costs, though, turned out to be far smaller than he had feared. So far, only two people have signed up. ‘We offered, and they didn’t take it,’ he said. Evidence is growing that his experience is not unusual…”
Paid Leave
New momentum on paid leave, in business and politics, By Claire Cain Miller, June 22, 2015, New York Times: “Oregon this month became the fourth state to pass a bill requiring that companies give workers paid sick days to care for themselves or family members. Chipotle said this month that it would begin offering hourly workers paid sick days and vacation days, joining McDonald’s, Microsoft and other companies that have recently given paid leave to more workers. And in a speech meant to preview her presidential campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton put paid leave at the center of her platform. No one, she said, should have ‘to choose between keeping a paycheck and caring for a new baby or a sick relative.’ Long a pet Democratic cause that seemed hopelessly far-fetched, paid leave suddenly seems less so…”