Governor Hogan’s veto of the Healthy Working Families Act is a huge disappointment and a betrayal of Maryland’s working families, and of the legislators in both the state House and Senate who passed it.  
 
Currently, 750,000 working people in Maryland do not have any paid sick days they can use to care for themselves or their children when they get sick. This means working Marylanders often must make impossible choices between a paycheck and their health, or the health of their family members. As is too often the case, people of color, and particularly women of color, suffer the most from lack of access to paid sick days – approximately half of Latina workers and more than a third of African American women currently cannot earn paid sick days.  
 
Governor Hogan acted callously in vetoing a bill that would provide financial relief for workers, improve the health of families and boost our economy.
 
Governor Hogan made the wrong choice, but we are not giving up. The fact is that HB1 passed both the State House and State Senate with enough votes to override this veto and we call upon our state legislators to override the veto as soon as possible.
 
Maryland workers, families and communities need the Healthy Working Families Act. MomsRising is proud to be part of the Working Matters coalition, which has led the charge for paid sick days in Maryland for the past five years – and we will continue fighting for earned sick days in the state for as long as it takes. We intend to see this bill become law.