Pelosi is proud of the bill providing paid sick leave to American workers affected by the pandemic

There is one giant catch to it however. The legislation passed by the House doesn’t actually guarantee paid sick leave to most American workers.

There’s a Giant Hole in Pelosi’s Coronavirus Bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday night celebrated the coronavirus legislation that passed early Saturday as providing paid sick leave to American workers affected by the pandemic.

She neglected to mention the fine print.

In fact, the bill guarantees sick leave only to about 20 percent of workers. Big employers like McDonald’s and Amazon are not required to provide any paid sick leave, while companies with fewer than 50 employees can seek hardship exemptions from the Trump administration.

“If you are sick, stay home,” Vice President Mike Pence said at a news conference on Saturday afternoon. “You’re not going to miss a pay check.”

But that’s simply not true. Sick workers should stay home, but there is no guarantee in the emergency legislation that most of them will get paid.

The White House and congressional Republicans, who insisted on the exemptions as the price of bipartisan support for the legislation, bear the primary responsibility for the indefensible decision to prioritize corporate profits in the midst of a public health emergency.

Instead of pressing executives to support a comprehensive sick leave law, President Trump held a Rose Garden pep rally for corporate America on Friday afternoon, showering praise on the chief executives of big employers including Walmart, Target and Walgreens.

But House Democrats also failed to act in the public interest. Paying sick workers to stay at home is both good policy and good politics. Why not pass a bill that required all employers to provide paid sick leave and then force Republicans to explain their objections to the public?

The bill does require some employers to provide full-time workers with up to 10 days of paid leave. But the requirement does not apply to the nation’s largest employers — companies with 500 or more workers, who together employ roughly 54 percent of all workers.
....
And the bill allows the Labor Department to grant hardship exemptions to businesses with fewer than 50 employees. That category includes another 26 percent of the work force, meaning that fully 80 percent of workers may not be able to cash in on Ms. Pelosi’s rhetoric.

Jeff Bezos owns Whole Foods grocery stores and he is generously allowing workers to pool their paid time off for workers who get sick. What a guy huh? The richest man in the country refuses to give sick leave to his employees. And since his Amazon detention centers employ more than 500 workers he gets to get away with not providing them it either.

I'm betting that Walmart won't have to give its workers sick leave either, but they might hold pot lucks so people can at least eat.

Lots of people on Twitter are giving McConnell crap for not bringing the senate back this weekend to pass the bill. Gee why hurry?

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Asking a serious question. Why the exemptions for the 500+ companies? I mean I know the reason, but did they even try to justify that?

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Bisbonian's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter ,
is PHOTO OP/SOUNDBITE.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

snoopydawg's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

their profits now would she? This is one of the biggest bullshit bills to come out of congress since the ACA. Even that did more help than this floating rat turd.

BTW I just saw this on DK. The tip jar was flagged and the comments are not nice.

Thou shalt not speak ill of the Nancy!

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“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

edg's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

Eighty percent of companies with 500+ employees already give 10 or more paid days of sick leave to workers. The biggest problem is small companies with less than 100 employees. Only half offer paid sick leave. For part-time workers, it's even worse -- only 1/4th get paid sick leave.

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Bollox Ref's picture

A Potemkin Village answer to a real world problem.

Yay Democrats!

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Raggedy Ann's picture

the dimwit party = the rethug party?

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Shahryar's picture

she was all tuckered out from jumping up to applaud usurper Guiado in January.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Shahryar

This was so over a month ago.

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“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Shahryar's picture

@snoopydawg

I've needed time, too. It was one of the most frightening things I've ever seen!

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snoopydawg's picture

People who are sick want to know if they have the coronavirus, but are told that they can't get tested at doctor's offices or most hospitals. So if they feel well enough to drive they can get tested at drive through sites.

New York's First Drive-Thru Testing Facility

Just as Gov. Cuomo promised on Thursday, New York’s first coronavirus drive-through testing center opened Friday morning in New Rochelle, and is up and running, collecting samples from anxious New Yorkers in the Westchester County town that has emerged as a hot spot for the national epidemic.

Along with a nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., where roughly two dozen patients have died of the virus, New Rochelle has emerged as one of the worst hot spots over the past two weeks since a lawyer from the community became its patient zero.

"This is drive-thru testing - something I didn’t hear of last week, but we’re doing this week," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

Drive-through testing means people in this community can call a telephone number, make an appointment, and they can come to be tested and literally drive through the testing facilities."

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVUO0eEA02I&ebc=ANyPxKrBBubwYeLS2d8Wq9Wk...

Since Trump has effed up epically the state governments have stepped up and doing many things to keep people safe and well. Some states have even gone as far as not allowing utilities to be shut off or people evicted from their homes. Tulsi has said that congress should be doing more things like this and Ro Khana (?) wants to give people up to $6,000 to cover expenses. This is a great idea because how many low income people have extra money to stock up on things in case they get quarantined? Diaper are expensive.

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“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Alligator Ed's picture

@snoopydawg they may be sick enough for hospitalization. For that degree of illness, they should go to the hospital. For mild symptoms, people should stay away from hospitals.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Alligator Ed

But that is the problem. I'm seeing reports of people knowing that they are sick, but no one will see them. Even if they have become sick from getting it from start who has been in the countries like China or on cruise ships they are told that they can't be seen. Urgent cares and even some ERs are telling people that they can't help them get tested. I can't find the article that discusses this, but this epidemic is laying bare how decrepit our health care system is. This will at least let people know that they need to quarantine themselves if nothing else.

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“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

Alligator Ed's picture

@snoopydawg in at least several counties. Schools all over the state are being closed for at least two weeks--even though the counties in which they are located do not have proven Wu Flu patients. Of course, with limited testing, the number of reported cases is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

To my limited knowledge, mainly from the county in which my clinic is located, testing is limited to no more than 20 per day. Those allowed to be tested must be symptomatic with both fever (T > 100.4) AND either muscle aches (myalgia), undue fatigue, or new persistent dry cough.

And here what you describe in your comment is correct as well.

In previous comments, I noted that the Wu Flu will (not may) give a strong push to M4A. This will become evident about 2 to 4 months from now, when the epidemic is expected to peak. When loved ones start dropping in the street, dying in bed, fainting on kitchen floors, etc. is when I expect this to happen. Too late to effect the elections of 2020. But perhaps, the disgust, repulsion, and dislike of the general political establishment will be pervasive and strong enough to get M4A realized.

The B.S. of having your "private insurance", the premiums and co-pays for which bankrupt many people, will provoke hundreds of thousands (not merely tens of thousands of people) to rightfully complain that, as per usual, they are getting screwed over.

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Pricknick's picture

She's going through rose depletion.
Maybe this will help warm her seeing as she's a cold hearted bitch witch.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

boriscleto's picture

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

we saved 20% to please the 1%. If you don't understand, you Sanders people, you're just poor at math and politics.

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Her accomplishment is keeping corporatist donors happy, and she always takes great pride in that.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Which U.S.workers have paid sick leave

Basically, those you earn the most are most entitled to paid sick leave.

The geographical chart is different from what I would have expected:

WI, MI, IL, IN, OH are at 67% as is KY, TN, MS, AL. The left coast (AK, WA, OR, CA, HI) is at 91%.

DE - Biden's home state is at 71% and VT - Sander's home state is at 100%

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snoopydawg's picture

Dear Berners: Dementia Joe is How Much “Your” Party HATES You

Feel the Hate

For many years I have been trying to tell “progressives” who cling to the quixotic notion of advancing social democracy, peace, and environmental sanity through the Democratic Party that the party’s corporate establishment hates them and would rather lose to the ever more fascistic Republican Party than to the moderately social-democratic wing of their own party.

Deleting Dementia: A “Classic Orwellian” Moment

I could go on but won’t because doing so would be too depressing and start to feel like able-ism and elder-abuse. Glen Greenwald is correct:

“it is visible to the naked eye that the 77-year-old six-term Senator and two-term Vice President is in serious cognitive decline…That is a grave matter not just because the establishment wing of the Democratic Party wants to put him in charge of the world’s most dangerous nuclear arsenal, a large chunk of the planet’s health, and the welfare of hundreds of millions of people, but also because it directly pertains to whether he can sustain the rigors and spotlight of a General Election against the incumbent President. And multiple incidents over the past couple weeks — from Biden’s forgetting the words of the most iconic and memorized passage of the Declaration of Independence to confusing his wife for his sister to spouting sentences that make no sense — have only intensified those worries”(emphasis added).

Truly horrifying is the Democratic Party media and politics establishment’s Orwellian determination to squelch public discussion of Biden’s pitiful mental state – a problem of which the establishment is fully cognizant. It was Democrats who first raised the problem of Biden’s unmistakable cerebral bankruptcy, but, Greenwald notes:

“as the Democratic establishment has united with creepy speed and obedience behind Biden in order to stop the Sanders candidacy, those who now raise these concerns instantly come under a withering assault of insults and attacks from Democratic Party operatives along with their crucial media allies: thinly disguised pro-Biden reporters who continue to insist on wearing the unconvincing and fraudulent costume of neutrality. They are invoking the classic Orwellian formulation from the novel 1984: ‘The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command’” (emphasis added).

(Anyone who doubts that Biden is “going through some things” in his cognitive life should look at this clip of Biden being interviewed on Sanders and Hillary in 2016: he sounds remarkably lucid and intelligent smart compared to how he is now[1]. He’s just not the same guy in this interview anymore. Could Jill Biden say something, before it’s too late?)

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“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

edg's picture

Eighty percent of companies with 500+ employees already offer paid sick leave. The bill correctly addresses companies between 50 and 500 employees, where less than 50% have it. But it drops the ball by allowing exemptions for companies with less than 50 employees, since only 25% of those companies offer paid sick leave. The bill should have included tax credits for small companies that can't afford to pay sick leave.

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snoopydawg's picture

@edg

But it drops the ball by allowing exemptions for companies with less than 50 employees, since only 25% of those companies offer paid sick leave.

I think that is a big deal. Is there anything in it for the gig workers?

Did you miss this too?

In fact, the bill guarantees sick leave only to about 20 percent of workers. Big employers like McDonald’s and Amazon are not required to provide any paid sick leave, while companies with fewer than 50 employees can seek hardship exemptions from the Trump administration.

The richest man in the world's company doesn't have to offer sick leave? Or some employers can ask for a waiver and their employees are SOL and will have to find ways to survive because bars, restaurants, hotels, ect are shut down? I think you need to look at this again and adjust your opinion. Lots of people are in for a world of hurt.

Parents are going to have to decide who stays home to take care of their kids because schools and day cares are closing.

Congress whiffed on this big time.

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“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

edg's picture

@snoopydawg

McDonald's corporate-owned restaurants (about 5% of total) already had a 5 day sick leave policy. McDonald's announced last week that they'll give employees at corporate-owned restaurants that are quarantined an additional 14 days of paid sick leave.

The other 95% of McDonald's restaurants are franchises, which means they are independent small businesses. Their average employee count is 15, so they are among the companies with less than 50 employees that can apply for a hardship exemption.

As for Amazon:

Amazon will give all employees diagnosed with the novel coronavirus or put into quarantine up to two weeks of pay, the company announced today. That includes the company’s part-time warehouse workers, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move follows Amazon’s decision to pay hourly workers who support its campuses even if they’re asked not to come to work due to coronavirus through the end of March, which the company announced last Friday.

Amazon also said it will establish a relief fund to help support its contractors and gig workers who are affected by coronavirus. The company’s independent delivery service partners, Amazon Flex delivery drivers, and other seasonal employees who may experience financial hardship as a result of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak can apply for grants “approximately equal to up to two weeks of pay” if diagnosed with the novel coronavirus or put into quarantine. Amazon’s initial contribution to the fund, called the Amazon Relief Fund, will be $25 million.

Source: Amazon is giving paid sick leave to all employees diagnosed with coronavirus

Of course there's nothing in the bill for gig workers. Gig workers are independent small businesses. They are responsible for their own sick leave. If Trump gets his payroll tax cut passed, however, gig workers will be included because they do pay FICA taxes.

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