An astounding 43 legislators in the House have signed onto a bill that would allow workers in the State of Washington to earn at least 40 hours of paid sick and safe leave annually.

The bipartisan support for the legislation is indicative of broad public support. 74% of Americans support Paid Sick Leave.

In 2012, workers won paid sick days in the City of Seattle and the City of Tacoma passed its own ordinance just last week.

In Olympia, workers packed a House hearing room and testified on the bill on January 26. On January 29, the bill passed out of the House Labor Committee on a vote of 4-3.

These are exciting developments. The next step in winning statewide paid sick leave is to move the bill out of the House Appropriations Committee so that it can eventually be heard on the House floor.  

You can help move the bill out of committee by sending an email to legislators on the committee and urging them to support the bill.

Wherever Paid Sick Days legislation winds up in the House, the real fight to ensure that over 1 million workers in the State of Washington don’t have to choose between their jobs and their health will likely be in the Senate.

We will keep you posted when the time comes to let the Senate know where we stand.