On the recordMarch 20, 2013
10 years ago, Senator Ted Kennedy first introduced the Healthy Families Act. This landmark legislation addressed a problem that so many working families struggle with each and every day--how do I balance my job responsibilities with my health and the health of my family? The Healthy Families Act sought to make that difficult juggling act a little bit easier by ensuring that hardworking people have access to paid sick days. At the time, supporters of the bill, myself included, argued that families were under increasing strain, with rising costs, stagnant wages, and disappearing job security. We argued that families were forced to make impossible choices between their jobs and their families. We pledged that working families deserved better. Today, a decade later, the circumstances facing working families are even more challenging: Americans are still struggling to get by. Wages are still stagnant, job security is even more tenuous, and too many workers struggle with whether to give up a paycheck or put their jobs at risk whenever a child has an asthma attack or an elderly parent comes down with the flu. Ten years later, working families still deserve better. Today, 10 years later, almost 40 percent of American workers, including \2/3\ of low-wage workers, don't have the ability to earn even a single paid sick day.…
