Dan Saltzman says paid sick-leave rule should be up to state: Portland City Hall roundup

Thanks for posting this. While covering more workers is better than fewer, the city should not punt this down the lane in hopes that the state will pick it up and run it home. The city has a lot of workers earning no sick days (4 in 10, to be exact), and letting that continue while crossing our fingers that the state leg will do it isn't responsible. Maybe he's deciding what's good policy based on what the Oregonian has to say about it, since they've now written two editorials about it in a mere 9 days. Surprise! The editorial writers don't like it. even though it's good for business, workers, public health, shoot, the economy. And even though leaving it voluntary has gotten us exactly where we are now: with an inequitable distribution of people with and without paid sick days, split across very predictable lines: higher-wage earners have them, low-wage earners are far less likely to (8 in 10 low-wage workers nationally don't earn any, and Latino workers are also less likely to earn paid sick time than other communities). I hope our other city commissioners are a wee braver and more leader-y than this. And as our service industry explodes in the U.S., this situation - which affects service workers most - will only get worse.