DURHAM, N.C. – For the past 10 years, various lawmakers have introduced legislation that would create a paid sick days policy for North Carolina workers.

The Healthy Families and Workplaces Paid Sick Days Act has never seen a vote over the last decade in the State General Assembly, despite the fact that 1.6 million citizens do not have jobs offering this benefit.

Jay Murrie owns Piedmont Wine Imports in Durham and voluntarily offers paid sick days to his employees.

"When you put people into that sort of environment, they give a lot back to the organizations they work for,” he states. “I feel like paid sick leave is just part of a tapestry that any business should do for the people within it, in order to achieve a sustainability and profitability for the company."

Low-wage workers are specifically impacted by the lack of paid sick days, since more than half of them earn less than $20,000 a year, meaning they are not able to miss a paycheck to take care of illness.

Currently this year's legislation (SB 556/H 544) has been referred to committee for consideration. Opponents of the legislation argue it creates a burden for employers.

Ana Pardo, campaign coordinator for the Workers' Rights Project at the North Carolina Justice Center, says there are a myriad of factors in not offering paid sick leave, aside from just financial.

"If you make your workers come to work sick, you're essentially putting them in a situation where they forfeit their wages to not come into work sick,” she points out. “A lot of people are going to choose to come in, and you don't get what you need from those workers when they come in sick, and you expose the rest of your staff and your customer base to getting sick as well."

Murrie says aside from knowing he's doing the right thing for his employees, he makes the money back that he spends on the benefit and then some by retaining employees and avoiding a high turnover rate.

"I think that what a lot of business owners don't understand is that if you pay people a living wage, you give them basic necessary benefits, on a daily basis they create higher levels of profitability," he states.

Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, Oregon and Vermont all have paid sick days laws.

In North Carolina, the law would allow employees to accrue from 4 to 7 days of paid sick leave each year, depending on the size of their company.




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September is Workforce Development Month and North Dakota offices managing energy assistance programs hope people in need of a fresh career start will give weatherization work some thought.

Community Action Agencies help low-income individuals sign up for aid to keep their heating and cooling bills lower. These offices also have teams specializing in weatherization, with free repairs and upgrades for eligible households, so their homes are safe and healthy and energy systems run more efficiently.

Willy Soderholm, executive director of the Community Action Partnership-Minot Region, said his crews have veteran leadership but there are still turnover issues with newer staff.

"They're working underneath the trailer-house bellies," Soderholm pointed out. "They're working up in the attics and things like that. And plus, you know, they're working out in the cold."

Despite the challenging work, Soderholm noted those who make it through a full season can realize the stability and rewarding mission aligned with the jobs. He explained there are benefits, competitive pay and training available. His region has a waiting list of more than 40 homes in need of weatherization work and a complete staff could help whittle down the number.

Recent federal policies have boosted weatherization funding, with office leaders noting job availability should not be as unpredictable in the coming years. Beyond charting a new career path, Soderholm emphasized joining one of the teams means you are helping people in your community meet basic needs.

"We're really looking for somebody that has compassion to work with those in need and understand the struggles that are going on out there," Soderholm explained.

Soderholm added his agency's longtime staff is nearing retirement age, which should create pressure and opportunities for others to advance their careers. Similar workforce challenges are reported by other offices around the country.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, such programs have led to nearly 275 jobs created or retained in North Dakota since 2015.

A new report showed Connecticut's post-pandemic job growth lags behind the rest of the nation.

The State of Working Connecticut report found personal income, gross domestic product and job growth are all falling behind the U.S. averages. Though low-wage workers saw significant wage growth to help with their cost of living, post-pandemic inflation has eroded the gains.

Patrick O'Brien, research and policy director at Connecticut Voices for Children and the report's author, said one reason for the state's slow job growth is its overall unaffordability.

"You need to make the state more affordable for families to stay here and grow here and for also some families to move here," O'Brien urged. "You could think about, you know, addressing affordable housing, affordable child care, a child tax credit. Those types of things that make it more affordable for families to live in the state."

Slower economic growth can also be attributed to the lagging recovery of public-sector jobs, which plummeted around the start of the pandemic. But nationwide, such jobs returned to pre-pandemic levels around mid-2022. Connecticut is close to the national average but has not reached pre-pandemic levels. The report showed building up the public-sector workforce could also significantly reduce wage inequality.

The report recommended ending the subminimum wage, limiting noncompete agreements and improving early childhood education to bolster Connecticut's economy. Bringing the changes to fruition will not be easy. O'Brien noted budget controls could prevent such policies from being enacted.

"With the fiscal controls and our tight budget, it's hard to get funding to increase individual programs," O'Brien pointed out. "Because there's a spending cap, that money tends to have to come from somewhere else."

He added the state has tried to reduce government spending by not filling public-sector jobs. But it can negatively affect the state budget, because it slows personal income growth and income tax collection. O'Brien thinks if nothing is done, Connecticut will remain on the same trajectory of repressed economic growth.

Average teacher pay increased in 2023, but a new study shows it still lags far behind that of other college graduates.

Average weekly wages for teachers across the nation increased 1.7% last year. But it was still more than 26 percentage points below other college graduates.

Sylvia Allegretto, senior economist with the Center on Economic Policy Research, is author of the report - and said there's a vast disparity across states, with Idaho among the states falling behind.

"The worst is in Colorado at just over 38% - and then Idaho, the teacher pay gap is 27.1%," said Allegretto. "So, not really great news, but it's not the worst in the country."

Wyoming had the smallest gap between teacher pay and other college graduates, at 9%. Nearly three quarters of states had gaps larger than 20%.

Allegretto noted that the gap for teachers has increased significantly in recent decades, from about 6% in 1996 to more than 26% in 2023.

She said this is having far-reaching effects for a profession that's one of the most important in the country.

"Are we able to retain the teachers that are already in the profession?" said Allegretto. "And how are we going to attract and retain future students of today to choose teaching as a profession?"

Allegretto said more public investment in education will be necessary to correct this issue.

"There's not going to be one way to do this," said Allegretto, "but it is definitely going to take federal, state and local government effort."




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