Three states will vote on paid sick day measures tonight
The U.S. remains one of the few wealthy countries without a mandate that employers provide paid sick days or longer-term paid medical and family leave to their workers. Three states — Alaska, Missouri and Nebraska — will have paid sick days on the ballot this year.
A need for paid sick days, which allow workers to call out when they or a family member has a sudden, acute illness, became clear during the COVID-19 pandemic — but the temporary expansion of sick leave requirements during the pandemic expired in December 2020. Since then, Democrats have worked to extend paid sick day policies — along with those to require longer-term paid family and medical leave, such as for the birth of a child — on a national level, but those efforts have faltered, and the fight has shifted to the state level. If voters in these three states approve their ballot measures today, they will join 14 others and Washington, D.C., in guaranteeing paid sick days to workers.
Harris has made paid family and medical leave part of her economic policy plan, and has also supported an increased minimum wage. When it comes to the economy and labor issues, Trump has backed away from previous support of an increased minimum wage and instead focused his economic plans on tax cuts that have drawn skepticism from economists. But it's not uncommon for voters to support more progressive worker-oriented policies while also voting for more conservative candidates who might oppose them, so even if voters in these three red-leaning states might pass new sick day policies, that won't necessarily translate into support for Harris.