HRC Blog

Healthy Families Act would give sick leave for LGBT families

May 19, 2009

Below is a post from HRC Senior Counsel Cristina Finch: Yesterday, Representative Rosa DeLauro reintroduced the Healthy Families Act (H.R. 2460) in the 111^th Congress. The Act would require most employers to provide at least seven days of paid sick leave a year for most employees. Employees could use the leave provided by the Act to attend to their own medical needs or the medical needs of children, parents, spouses or any other individual "whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship." Currently federal law does not require that private employers provide employees with any paid sick leave. While some employers may provide sick leave, many do not. Furthermore, employers that do provide leave do not always include families headed by same-sex couples. In fact, almost half of all American workers have no paid leave to take care of themselves or family members when they fall sick. For families in the lowest quartile of earners, almost 80% lack paid sick leave. Forcing employees to choose between a paycheck and taking care of their own illness or a family member's illness negatively impacts national health and costs businesses an annual $180,000,000 in lost productivity. Providing paid sick days is essential for working Americans and their families to ensure they can take time for regular, preventive medical check-ups or to care for a sick family member without risking their job. For families headed by same-sex couples, when employers do not provide paid leave, there are no options beyond missing work, foregoing a paycheck, and potentially losing a job. Passage of this valuable legislation would assist millions of Americans in committed, long-term relationships care for a same-sex partner or family member. HRC applauds Representative DeLauro for her work to extend sick leave to all American families, including those headed by same-sex couples. We urge Congress to take timely action on this vital piece of legislation.