Pushing for minimum leave here

In Washington state's last legislative session, two lawmakers introduced companion bills that would make this the only state in the country with a required minimum leave for employees. The bills remain under consideration.

If passed, they would require employers to provide a minimum of 40 hours of paid time off for each six months of full-time work and encourage employers to provide more. Part-time workers would get a proportionate amount.

The bills, sponsored by Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, and Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, leave it open whether employees would use the days as sick leave, vacation leave or personal days.

"We wanted to get the idea in place that all people who are working full time should have a minimum of 10 days (in a year)," said Keiser. "It's a stark contrast with the rest of the industrialized world."

Last year, Keiser and Dickerson succeeded in getting a bill passed and signed into law that would allow people to use their own sick leave for the care of any family member.

"It's a small step, but the issue here is that not all people get leave at all — not sick leave, not vacation leave or personal leave," said Keiser, who is also the communications director for the Washington State Labor Council. "The service economy is full of the kind of jobs that don't offer much in the way of benefits, including time off."

It all sounds good, said Amber Balch, governmental-affairs director for the Association of Washington Business, but companies can already voluntarily add benefits to attract employees. With benefits mandated by legislation, their ability to compete at home and abroad could suffer.

"If you add another layer of forced benefits, then the jobs will go to Peru or Argentina or another foreign country that doesn't have the same regulatory structure," said Balch, using minimum-wage and worker-compensation regulations as examples.