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News release

MomRising Praises Progress of Paid Sick Leave in Maryland, Urges State Senate to Pass The Bill

April 14, 2016
Paid Family & Medical Leave, Paid Sick Days

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

On the last day of the Maryland legislative session, the State Senate failed to follow the lead of the Maryland House of Delegates in passing historic legislation requiring companies of more than 15 people to allow their employees to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave. The legislation, which has taken more than three years to pass the State legislature passed the House of Delegates 84-54 last week. Right now, more than 700,000 Marylanders lack access to paid sick leave, despite recent polling showing that 83% of Maryland residents support such legislation.
 
Ruth Martin from Silver Spring, a senior campaign director for MomsRising.org, a national organization with 40k Maryland members and more than 1 million mothers and their families nationwide fighting for policies to increase family economic security, and part of the Working Matters Coalition, a coalition of over 150 organizations from across Maryland supporting the campaign for paid sick days, applauded the work of the House of Delegates and the coalition’s effort and vowed that MomsRising members will continue pushing for paid sick days legislation until it’s the law in Maryland. 
 
“Paid sick days made tremendous progress forward in Maryland this year - because the bill that passed the Maryland House of Delegates was good for Maryland workers, good for Maryland families and good for Maryland’s economy.”
 
“For too long, too many Maryland workers have had to choose between a paycheck and the health of themselves and their family members. Stories like that of Claudia Roman-Stolte, a caseworker from Olney in Montgomery County who describes the heartbreak when a mother she works with was forced to leave her four-year old girl at home sick, rather than miss a day of work at her fast-food job.  For too many Maryland parents, staying home to take care of a sick child - means having enough money to buy groceries that day, or not.
 
“Moms across Maryland celebrate the support that paid sick day legislation received in the House of Delegates.  Maryland has the opportunity to set a strong paid leave precedent that will boost Maryland families, workers and businesses.  As this legislative session ends with the dream of paid sick days still unfulfilled, we urge State Senators to take up the bill promptly when the next session begins.”
 
In March, more than two dozen MomsRising members and their kids traveled to the State Capitol in Annapolis to deliver stories to elected officials on the importance of earned paid sick days.  Watch a video of that here.
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.