Contagion: Not Just a Movie
What’s most frightening about the movie Contagion is that it’s NOT science fiction.Flu epidemics are real, and they can spread quickly – especially in the United States, where 44 million people without...
View ArticleConnecticut Workers Welcome Paid Sick Days
This time last year, Desiree Rosado, a school bus driver in Groton, Connecticut, was dreading flu season. "Working without paid sick days, you're always worried about what will happen if you get sick,"...
View Article9to5 Milwaukee Files Ethics Complaint Against Supreme Court Justice
The group that led the fight for paid sick days in Milwaukee has filed an ethics charge against a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, after learning that he had accepted free legal services worth tens of...
View ArticleFighting Gender Inequality in the Restaurant Industry
Name a country where large numbers of women legally earn less than minimum wage and have to drag themselves to work sick or risk losing their job.To all the places that come to mind, add the United...
View ArticleAbra-ca-dabra Arithmetic Can't Cancel Paid Sick Days
Paid sick days are good for our economy, according to numerous studies by seasoned economists. That’s why Americans in cities and states across the country from all parts of the political spectrum...
View ArticleCelebrate Second Anniversary of Affordable Care Act
Experts like to talk about cost-benefit analyses. Badly needed reforms to inefficient systems may cost money, but often the benefits from that change far outweigh the costs.What gets overlooked is the...
View ArticleStop the War on Mothers
I love the image of conservatives hiding behind the flag of motherhood to protect themselves against charges of gender insensitivity. It’s like kids who move the couch to cover up a stain and hope no...
View ArticleThe Gifts Mothers Really Want
My favorite Mother’s day gifts from my sons were their original stories, songs and poems. But what I needed when they were infants and toddlers was something children can’t deliver: affordable time...
View ArticleWho Speaks for Small Business? Not the NFIB
The National Federation of Independent Businesses loves to wrap itself in the flag of neighborhood Mom and Pop shops when it lobbies on Capitol Hill, but many small business owners maintain the NFIB’s...
View ArticleEnd Unchecked Use of ‘Job Killer’ Allegations
The right wing relies on an old method of deception: repeat something often enough and people will begin to accept it as fact.And when the media acts as a conduit for delivering this message without...
View ArticleFight Voter Suppression in Orlando
This is what democracy does NOT look like:Hundreds of community activists, faith leaders, business owners and others in Orange County, Florida, identified the need for workers to earn paid sick days as...
View ArticleLong Beach Hotel Workers Win Living Wages, Paid Sick Days
Two thousand workers who clean the rooms and serve the food at hotels in Long Beach, California had special cause for celebration election night. They will finally earn a living wage and be able take a...
View ArticleFootball and Family
I'm a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan, but I have to hand it to Bears cornerback Charles Tillman, who was determined to be with his wife when she delivered their fourth child, even if it meant missing...
View ArticleFlu Prevention? Try Paid Sick Days
Ask Adela Valdez how it feels to hear public health experts on TV explain ways to limit a flu outbreak. Get a flu shot, wash your hands, they advise – and if you get the flu, stay home until 24 hours...
View ArticleEric Cantor’s New Plan Would Cost Workers Time, Flexibility and Money
Listen up, working moms and dads: Rep. Eric Cantor has a deal for you - more time to spend with your family! What’s not to like?Except for one hitch: You get to spend more time with your family only...
View ArticleFather's Day Gift that Keeps Giving
co-written with Stewart D. Friedman, Practice Professor of Management, Wharton SchoolOn this Father’s Day, too many fathers have to choose between the family they love and the job they need. That’s a...
View ArticleClinton, de Blasio Speak Out for Paid Sick Days
2014 promises another string of wins for policies like paid sick days that boost the economic security of families and of the economy overall. Recently two political leaders reminded us of the urgency...
View ArticleStates Power the Movement for New Family-Friendly Standards
Why are opponents so concerned about local communities deciding what’s best for the health and welfare of their residents?Because these naysayers, fueled by lobbyists and financing from mega...
View ArticleAnother Boost for the Paid Sick Days Movement
More than a quarter million New Yorkers got a big boost yesterday when the City Council voted 45-6 to expand its paid sick days law. In a city where “a lot of people are one paycheck away from...
View ArticleFMLA Anniversary: Dare to Imagine the World We Deserve
Twenty-one. This number has come to symbolize adulthood. It means good luck in cards. But when it comes to the Family and Medical Leave Act, twenty-one stands for “too damn long”– too little progress...
View Article
