Philadelphia could be next to get paid sick leave

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is finally ready to do the right thing.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is finally ready to do the right thing.

Paid sick leave is close to becoming a reality in Philadelphia, finally. The city council is expected to vote on February 12 to pass a bill requiring that workers at businesses with 10 or more employees earn up to five paid sick days per year. The fight for sick leave in Philadelphia is nothing new, but what has changed is that Mayor Michael Nutter is ready to support this bill after vetoing sick leave twice before:

“Mayor Nutter believes the time for paid sick leave has come,” [Nutter's chief of staff, Everett] Gillison said. “It will be a boon to those who need it to take care of themselves, their children and their families while holding down a job.”

Nutter jumped on board the concept last year, despite his two earlier vetoes, after convening a task force on mandatory sick leave.

Gee, might Nutter's change of heart have something to do with the momentum building behind paid sick leave? With New York City having passed and then expanded sick leave, Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey, having passed it, Nutter's mid-2014 change of heart does not exactly represent him going way out on a limb. But the important thing is that he got there, and the city council has so far prevented him from watering down the bill to only apply to businesses with 15 or more employees.

Advocates of the law estimate that nearly 200,000 workers will benefit.