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Calling on the United States Congress to extend payroll tax relief to small and midsize essential businesses providing paid sick leave to their employees, and the Pennsylvania General Assembly to enact legislation to expand paid sick leave eligibility for all essential workers.
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WHEREAS, The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was enacted with bipartisan support on March 18, 2020 and provides small and midsize employers refundable payroll tax credits that reimburse the cost of providing paid sick and family leave wages for employees to use COVID-19 related leave; and
WHEREAS, The FFCRA's payroll tax credits expire on December 31, 2020; and
WHEREAS, On September 10, 2020,The Philadelphia City Council passed Bill Number 200303, entitled "Public Health Emergency Leave," which currently provides immediate paid sick leave to all essential workers excluded from the FFCRA's coverage, including gig workers, healthcare workers, and those working for businesses with 500 or more employees; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia's Public Health Emergency Leave will, without further action, end on December 31, 2020; and
WHEREAS, A study released on October 15, 2020 by Health Affairs Journal entitled "COVID-19 Emergency Sick Leave Has Helped Flatten The Curve In The United States" concluded that expanded paid sick leave helped flatten the curve by eliminating approximately 400 confirmed new cases per day nationwide; and
WHEREAS, According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, both Black and Latinx Philadelphians are being hospitalized at higher rates than Philadelphia's white residents, and new infection rates are highest in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are people of color; and
WHEREAS, An August 2020 study released by World Medical & Health Policy, entitled "Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Mortality Among Essential Workers in the United States," found that COVID-19 mortality was disproportionately higher among Black people, because Black workers i...
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