In 2018, worker advocacy groups gathered enough signatures to put several citizen-initiated ballot proposals on the November ballot. However, according to law, before that happens, the legislature has the ability to make them law immediately by passing them as legislation. If this is done, it bypasses the governor and they become law without the governor’s signature. There were several ballot […]

Late last month, the Biden administration to an important and necessary step of offering a tax credit to employers who offer paid time off related to COVID-19 or the vaccination. To qualify, the must be a business with under 500 employees that offered paid sick or family leave to their employees through September 30th of this year and have employees […]

The following essay was written by my friend Danielle Atkinson. Danielle is Chair of MI Time to Care and the Founding Director of Mothering Justice, a statewide organization working to improve the lives of Michigan families by equipping the next generation of mother activists. Enjoy. Six years ago, I founded Mothering Justice to fill a void for mothers across the […]

In Michigan, you have no right to paid time off if you or a loved one is sick. The result is that many of us go to work sick because we simply can’t afford NOT to. The impacts of this, which we highlighted in a four-part series HERE, are devastating to workers and their families. Not only that, it all […]

The following guest post was written by Jenny Doezema, a Kalamazoo resident who sends her children to Kalamazoo Public Schools. Enjoy. Earlier this month, Kalamazoo schools were closed when more than 1,900 students fell ill on the same day. The district closed all schools on a Friday to allow them to disinfect the school buildings over a long weekend. Other […]

This is the fourth and final installment of a four part series about workers who are directly impacted by the crucial fight to make earned paid sick time required by law. (Part 1 is HERE, Part 2 is HERE, and Part 3 is HERE.) Last year, the group MI Time to Care launched a petition drive to put earned sick […]

This is the third of a four part series about workers who are directly impacted by the crucial fight to make earned paid sick time required by law. (Part 1 is HERE, Part 2 is HERE and Part 4 is HERE.) Last year, the group MI Time to Care launched a petition drive to put earned sick time on the […]

This is the second of a four part series about workers who are directly impacted by the crucial fight to make earned paid sick time required by law. (Part 1 is HERE, Part 3 is HERE, and Part 4 is HERE.) Last year, the group MI Time to Care launched a petition drive to put earned sick time on the […]

This is the first of a four part series about workers who are directly impacted by the crucial fight to make earned paid sick time required by law. (Part 2 is HERE, Part 3 is HERE, and Part 4 is HERE.) Last year, the group MI Time to Care launched a petition drive to put earned sick time on the […]

Last February, Denno Research released a poll conducted for Mothering Justice and the Economic Justice Alliance of Michigan that shows overwhelming support for requiring Michigan employers to provide time off for workers who are sick or who need to care for sick families members. Their poll of 600 respondents throughout the state showed that an astonishing 86% of Michiganders favor […]

As Ramona Grigg discussed in her recent guest post “We Need Paid Sick Leave Because Workers Are Humans First“, Democrats in the Michigan legislature have introduced legislation mandating paid sick leave for all Michigan workers. As she wrote, nearly half of Michigan workers are forced to take vacation days or take unpaid leave to stay home if they are ill. […]