JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to help workers across the country. He is urging Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act, which will give tens of millions of workers medical and family leave.
Right now, the United States is one of just a handful of countries that does not require paid family or medical leave.
No one is immune. We all get sick, but some workers who catch a cold can't call out of work without losing money from their paycheck.
The president wants to put a stop to that.
Obama is asking Congress for more than $2 billion to require companies to give workers up to seven days of paid sick leave a year and at least six weeks of paid leave to federal employees after the birth or adoption of a child.
Under the Healthy Families Act workers would earn an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours they work.
Employers that already provide paid sick time would not have to change their policies as long as the time earned can be used for the same purposes.
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It would apply to companies that employ at least 15 workers.
More than 40 million U.S. private sector workers don't have any type of paid sick leave, so if Congress passes the measure, human resources representative Rose Conry said it will affect employees and business owners.
"As far as employees go it's going to affect them in a positive way. They are going to be able to have sick leave time. They are going to be able to -- if they decide they want to have children, they can plan for that, and they know it will be paid for their time off," said Conry, CEO of Stafftime. "(For employers), it's going to increase their cost and not only paying them for their time off but on the back end with administrative costs that they will incur (from) people monitoring that."
The National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small businesses, opposes the president's effort. It said the measure will force harmful cuts to employees and reduce hiring.
"More companies are trying to be more employee-friendly and that definitely attracts higher-level employees and a better class of employees," Conry said.
Multiple studies show paid sick leave and paid maternity leave help companies retain workers and boost productivity.