Skip to main content
Statement

Gov. Hogan’s Proposal a ‘Poor, Unacceptable Substitute for the Robust Paid Sick Days Measure the State Legislature Supports and Marylanders Need’

November 29, 2017
Paid Sick Days

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Ruth Martin, Vice President, Workplace Justice Campaigns of MomsRising.org, a national online and on-the-ground organization of more than 30,000 Maryland members and more than 1 million mothers and their families across the country, on Governor Larry Hogan’s proposed substitute for the Maryland Healthy Working Families Act
“The substitute paid sick days measure Governor Hogan introduced yesterday is unacceptable. It covers too few workers, phases in too slowly, and the waiver it contains constitutes a huge and unacceptable loophole that would weaken it even further. It would do nothing for too many of the 700,000 workers in Maryland who do not currently have any paid sick days they can use to care for themselves or their children when they get sick.
 
“Governor Hogan’s veto of the popular and badly needed Healthy Working Families Act last May betrayed working families. It is truly disappointing that he is compounding his error by using discredited arguments about the bill’s potential impact on jobs and small businesses, and that he is proposing tax credits as part of his solution, which is the wrong approach.
 
“The Healthy Working Families Act is based on rock-solid approaches to providing paid sick days that have been proven successful in cities and states all across the country. It is the right solution for Maryland.
 
“Maryland moms, 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 the state for five years. We will work tirelessly to ensure that the state legislature overrides the Governor’s outrageous veto early next year, so the Healthy Working Families Act becomes law. What he proposed yesterday is a poor, unacceptable substitute for the robust paid sick days measure the state legislature supports and Marylanders need.”
 

# # # #

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.