SEATTLE - The ability to take a day off when one is sick or caring for a loved one isn't part of many people's job benefits. It's even more rare to be paid for it.

On Monday, the importance of paid sick days and family leave is front and center in Washington, D.C., at the White House Summit on Working Families.

Amanda DeShazo, a retail worker and organizer for the Healthy Tacoma campaign, is among the attendees. DeShazo says she realized the importance of paid time off when her appendix ruptured. She had no sick days and lots of bills, including college tuition, to pay.

"I want to share my story about how paid sick-leave would really benefit people in my town," said DeShazo. "Not just here, but all over the states. A lot of people still have the issue of going to work sick or staying home, and being able to make a living."

The Economic Opportunity Institute in Seattle estimates almost 1 million Washington workers don't have paid sick leave.

Another big topic at the summit is how to ensure equal-pay protections for women. In Washington, a woman earns, on average, 78 cents for every dollar a man earns.

Overall, Washington state gets a 'B' grade in a new national report on family-friendly workplace policies by the National Partnership for Women and Families.

But according to Tatsuko Go Hollo, policy associate at the Economic Opportunity Institute, the state doesn't deserve such a high mark. The Legislature created a Family Medical Leave Insurance plan in 2007, but hasn't funded it. She said today's families are juggling a lot, and employers need to acknowledge it and work with them.

"Our workforce has changed over the decades," said Go Hollo. "It's time that our workplace policies catch up. If we're going to get our economy back on track, that starts with policies that value families at work, and help families maintain financial stability."

Some employers are also part of the Washington Work and Family Coalition visiting the nation's capital this week. Their message is that giving their workers more flexibility improves loyalty and morale, helps strengthen their communities' economy, and hasn't hurt their bottom line.


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A newly enacted law provides New York freelancers with labor protections.

The "Freelance Isn't Free Act" prevents companies from not paying freelancers. The law requires a contract between freelancers and clients for any work valued at $800 or more. It also requires clients to pay freelancers by the contract's due date or within 30 days of work completion if no date is specified.

Rafael Espinal, executive director of the Freelancers Union, said the law has been needed for a long time.

"We've found that freelancers, on average, lose about $6,000 a year because of nonpaying clients," Espinal reported. "We know, in a state like New York, $6,000 goes a long way in being able to keep up with the cost of living and being able to pay their bills like their rent, utilities, putting food on the table."

Freelancers have provided positive feedback on the law but it faced hurdles before passing in late 2023. Some companies expressed compliance concerns about larger businesses' interactions with freelancers. Gov. Kathy Hochul initially vetoed the bill. At first, enforcing the bill went to the Department of Labor but the passed version puts the responsibility on the Attorney General's office.

Before the bill passed, Espinal advised freelancers about how to make contracts bulletproof so they were guaranteed payment. Some steps involve stipulations ensuring payment at milestone periods of a job and net payment terms. Espinal noted the new law expands what is considered a written agreement to protect freelancers further.

"The law really captures all written agreements and considers them to be contracts," Espinal explained. "It could be anything as simple as a text message, outlining the work with the payment terms. It can be an email, it doesn't necessarily have to be a traditional contract on legal paper."

This bill was modeled after New York City's own "Freelance Isn't Free" law. Aside from New York, Kansas, Missouri and Los Angeles have similar protections for freelancers.

As the Biden-Harris Administration prepares to invest up to $175 billion in tax money into semiconductor manufacturing under the CHIPS Act, a new Institute for Policy Studies report warns guardrails are necessary to ensure that workers in Colorado and across the U.S. - who make tiny chips critical for electronic devices - are getting good jobs.

Report author Chris Rodrigo, the managing editor at the institute's Inequality.org website, said the U.S. Department of Commerce should add key worker protections - including good wages, safety from toxic chemicals, and the freedom to unionize - to all contracts before backing up the Brinks trucks.

"Commerce should require, or at least strongly encourage, companies to not try to disrupt any organizing activity going on," said Rodrigo. "Having unions at these companies is a good back stop to make sure there aren't too many violations of people's labor rights."

The report also recommends banning stock buy-backs and other executive perks - to make sure that more taxpayer dollars are invested in workers in the form of improved wages, training, and safety measures.

Despite pledges from companies in the 1990s to phase out dangerous chemicals, miscarriage and cancer rates remain high among the global semiconductor workforce.

The industry and the administration cite rapid growth as a sign of a smart economic policy. And in fact the companies claim there aren't enough qualified Americans willing to take on jobs created by the CHIPS Act.

But researchers found there was no deficit of credentialed workers. Rodrigo cited a recent survey showing that many are turning to other industries because of bad work environments.

"And over half of the workers interviewed said they were likely to leave their jobs within the next three to six months," said Rodrigo. "Companies should look inward and try to improve the quality of jobs before blaming it on external factors like workers not being available or not being interested in working in their industry."

Rodrigo said he believes setting a good precedent now by demanding high quality jobs could be transformative for future public investments across the economy.

"This is an opportunity," said Rodrigo, "for the federal government to set strong standards for what jobs look like when public money is being given to any industry."




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A new report highlights Pennsylvania's strong economic growth and recovery, making the state a favorable environment for job seekers.

The findings from the Keystone Research Center show job growth in the state has consistently kept pace with, or exceeded, national rates over the past three years - despite slow working-age population growth.

Economist and the center's Executive Director Stephen Herzenberg said wages for nearly all groups of workers are increasing when adjusted for inflation.

"Whether you're a low wage worker, whether you're in the middle, whether you're a woman or a person of color or even a blue collar worker," said Herzenberg, "all of those categories of workers have seen inflation adjusted wages go up in the last year, in the last four or five years, and in the last decade."

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is holding steady at 3.4%.

Despite overall positive trends, Herzenberg said income inequality remains a concern - because the benefits of economic growth were so unevenly distributed between 1980 and 2015.

Herzenberg pointed out the economy's success can be attributed to effective policies implemented during and after the pandemic.

He added that large-scale federal relief and investment bills have played a crucial role in the recovery.

"We've had investments in infrastructure and climate and innovation," said Herzenberg. "Two of those three bills passed in a bipartisan way, one of them with just Democratic votes - and those federal investments have helped sustain economic growth."

Herzenberg said he believes the Biden administration has possibly been the most pro-worker and pro-union in White House history.

The report indicates that in 2023 alone, union membership in Pennsylvania jumped 30% in the broad private service sector - up 64,000 workers to a new total of 279,000.