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| President Obama |
On December 19, Obama was formally invited by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to give the annual address.January 20, 2015 President Obama's call to Congress last week to pass paid sick leave laws for workers marks a renewed push to make family leave the norm in the U.S. In Tuesday night's State of the Union address, Obama's expected to expound on that proposal, encouraging passage of a mandatory paid sick leave measure and asking Congress for more than $2 billion for states to create their own programs.
Among its developed peers, the U.S. is the only nation without a national requirement for paid sick leave. But in San Francisco, the first U.S. jurisdiction to enact such a law, the practice is nearly a decade old. The city's ordinance stipulates that workers accrue one hour of leave per 30 hours worked. The bill Obama endorses, the Healthy Families Act, follows the same rules, and allows for up to seven days of paid leave (San Francisco's version allows for up to either five or nine days, depending on the size of the company.)
San Francisco first enacted the ordinance in 2007. And in the years since, the city's workers—and businesses—have reaped the benefits. "San Francisco's economy is booming," Jim Lazarus, senior vice president for policy at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, told The New York Times last year about the effects of the city's sick leave law.
Like the debate over raising the minimum wage—a policy Obama proposed in last year's address—critics argue that a national paid sick leave law would hurt businesses' bottom lines. To compensate, they'd have to cut wages and jobs.
