Working Families Untied for New Jersey, Inc. joined with its progressive partners this morning to continue the advancement of earned sick days legislation in the state Assembly. Following supportive testimony from workers, small business owners, labor unions, and community stakeholders, the Assembly Budget Committee voted mostly along party lines to release the bill (A-2354) with Republicans voting “no”, Democrats voting “yes” and Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-20) abstaining.

We thank all of our coalition partners who continue to make the case to provide earned sick days to the approximately 1.2 million workers in New Jersey who still lack this basic workplace standard. This is a problem that directly affects one in three New Jersey workers as well as impacts public health. Besides the moral and health reasons for providing earned sick days to workers, there are clear economic benefits to keeping illness out of the workplace from increased productivity and employee retention to workers having more spend money to stimulate the economy since they are not losing wages due to sickness.

The case for reform is clear. This law would create a moral and level playing field and set a standard which respects the basic needs of all workers in our state not just select groups. With your continued support, we will succeed in achieving a statewide earned sick days law, and enact a critical workplace standard that will benefit millions inside and outside of the workplace.