Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-CT)
Connecticut was the first state to pass a paid sick leave law. Now, it's one of three, and frankly, Connecticut's law could be stronger—it only applies to businesses with 50 or more employees, for instance. So worker advocates and some Democratic legislators are looking to
bring Connecticut back out front on paid leave:
"We were once a model for other states but now we're falling behind,'' Rep. Peter Tercyak, D-New Britain, and co-chairman of the legislature's labor committee, said recently.
No specific bills have been filed, but several key lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled legislature say they expect proposals to be raised that would increase the number of employees eligible for the benefit.
Thanks to a series of political compromises, manufacturers, salaried workers, temporary workers and workers at nationally chartered nonprofit groups are exempt, as are certain categories of employees not specifically listed in the law.
Including those workers and workers at smaller businesses—the new Massachusetts sick leave law, for instance, applies to businesses with 11 or more employees—would be a big step forward. Passing these improvements would require Connecticut Democrats to be non-weenies. Gov. Dannel Malloy, re-elected in 2014 by a wider margin than his initial election in 2010, after touting sick leave in his re-election campaign, should get behind this now.
Please read below the fold for more labor and education news.
Education
- Mississippi legislators don't want to fund impoverished schools.
- Tom Hanks explains how important community college was to him:
Classmates included veterans back from Vietnam, women of every marital and maternal status returning to school, middle-aged men wanting to improve their employment prospects and paychecks. We could get our general education requirements out of the way at Chabot — credits we could transfer to a university — which made those two years an invaluable head start. I was able to go on to the State University in Sacramento (at $95 a semester, just barely affordable) and study no other subject but my major, theater arts.