Healthy Tacoma? Coalition wants to bring you paid sick days

Can you afford to stay home when you're sick?  When  your children are sick?   The Healthy Tacoma Coalition would like to see Tacoma become one of a growing handful of municipalities that require paid sick days for local employees.  

At a community roundtable held yesterday at King's Books, Carmela Micheli of Arcadia Montessori described how providing paid sick days to her employees keeps her students healthy and makes good economic sense for her business.  Former restaurant server Megan Sacks described her experience working for a restaurant chain, where management told her that her job would be in jeopardy if she did not show up for work when sick, then fired her after a customer called the health department.  

In San Francisco, paid sick days have been mandatory since 2007.  In an era of economic insecurity San Francisco's employment outlook has remained strong, despite this new requirement.  Preliminary studies of the mandate's impact on employers seems to show no dire economic consequences.  A similar measure was passed by the D.C. City Council in 2008 and has made very few headlines since.

Should Tacoma join cities like San Francisco and D.C.?  What about Washington State as a whole?  How would this decision impact your family?

If you'd like to know more about the Healthy Tacoma Coalition, visit their website and consider adding your support.