In another in his stream of executive moves that don’t require congressional approval, President Obama used Labor Day and the ongoing presidential campaign to highlight his signing of an executive order requiring federal contractors to provide up to seven days sick leave for employees.
“We’ve seen that many companies, including small businesses, support these policies, because they understand it’s helpful with recruitment and retention,” Obama told a union crowd in Boston on Monday. Back in January’s State of the Union address, he had stated that, “We are the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers. And that forces too many parents to make the gut-wrenching choice between a paycheck and a sick kid at home.”
The order, which would affect some 300,000 workers full- and part-time, would credit one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to seven days annually. The time could be used to care for one’s self, a family member or domestic partner, including victims of domestic violence.
Because the order must still go through public comment, it won’t take effect until 2017 under new contracts, according to a White House fact sheet.
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