Title
Enacting a new Chapter 9-4100 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces," to provide that certain employees are entitled to paid and unpaid leave, all under certain terms and conditions.
Body
THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA HEREBY ORDAINS:
SECTION 1. A new Chapter 9-4100 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces," is hereby enacted, to read as follows:
CHAPTER 9-4100. PROMOTING HEALTHY FAMILIES AND WORKPLACES.
§ 9-4101. Findings.
Whereas the Council finds that:
(1) Most workers in the City of Philadelphia will at some time during the year need temporary time off from work to take care of their own health needs or the health needs of members of their families.
(2) According to the Employee Benefit Survey of the national Bureau of Labor Statistics, 35% to 40% of workers in Philadelphia, or approximately 200,000 workers, lack access to paid sick leave. Among workers who have paid sick leave, many have an inadequate amount of time they can use, are limited in their ability to use their sick time without retaliation or cannot use their sick time to care for their families. Nationally, nearly 4 in 10 of all workers do not have earned paid sick days and millions more workers cannot use sick days to care for sick children.
(3) In this economy, earned paid sick days are needed now more than ever. For too many Philadelphians, taking time off from work due to illness or family emergency means sacrificing much-needed income and risking loss of a job. As the economy returns to prosperity, families need every penny of the income they earn to stay financially secure. According to the Mayor's Task Force on Paid Sick Leave, for a family without paid time off, on average, 3.1 days of pay lost due to illness is equivalent to an entire month's health care budget and 3.5 days is equivalent to its entire monthly grocery budget.
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