St. Paul launches study of citywide sick leave policies
When St. Paul City Council Member Rebecca Noecker got a call on Monday that her son was sick at day care, she had to worry about missing meetings and postponing calls — but she didn’t have to think about going a day without pay.
“The fact of the matter is, I’m white and I’m middle class, so I’m really, really lucky,” Noecker said at a news conference Wednesday. Many of the city’s residents who most need paid sick time cannot get it, she said.
That may change next year.
The St. Paul City Council voted Wednesday to have a task force study sick- and safe-leave requirements for businesses citywide. Safe leave is offered to people who need to take time off work because of domestic violence or sexual assault. Minneapolis is also looking into such regulations.
The council’s vote comes shortly after a study found that 42 percent of workers in the city — about 72,200 people — do not get paid sick time.
Low-income and part-time employees are less likely to get paid leave, according to a report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and the advocacy group TakeAction Minnesota. And employees who are people of color, particularly Latino and black workers, were less likely than white workers to get sick leave.
The organizations used data collected by federal agencies to uncover the trends, which are similar to those in Minneapolis.
