Workers in California will soon receive a minimum of five days of paid sick leave annually, instead of three, under a new law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Wednesday.

The law, which takes effect in January, also increases the amount of sick leave workers can carry over into the following year. Newsom said it demonstrates that prioritizing the health and well-being of workers “is of the utmost importance for California’s future.”

“Too many folks are still having to choose between skipping a day’s pay and taking care of themselves or their family members when they get sick,” Newsom said in a statement announcing his action.

  • theUnlikely@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Meanwhile in Germany…

    You’re legally entitled to six weeks of continuous sick leave paid by your employer, after which your health insurer will take over the costs. If you’ve had sick leave for the same illness multiple times in the same year, these days will be accumulated. After six weeks of regular paid sick leave, you’ll receive Krankengeld (lit. ‘sick money’) for a maximum of 90 percent of your wage after taxes for up to 72 weeks.

    • SasquatchBanana@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yes, true, but i will take this win.

      Newsom increased the minimum wage for fast food workers and now this? I will take these little victories

        • SasquatchBanana@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yes. I want full blown socialism in America but that isn’t going to happen over night. The unions fought for our 40 hour work week, weekends, and more and those were small victories.

          This was a small victory and I will take it. It makes the living conditions od California better and this may get the ball going.

          • rambaroo@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I don’t see it as a good thing that the most progressive state in the country can barely shit out 5 days of sick leave for people, and it took decades to pull off.

            That just shows how entrenched neoliberal economics is in the US.

            • SasquatchBanana@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              This type of thinking is how and why socialism is never coming to America. It won’t happen over one night. Take the small victories. Don’t expect perfection because that will be your downfall.

              • rambaroo@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Bullshit. The fact it took this long to get two extra days of sick leave is why we won’t have socialism in America. It’s not because people don’t want it enough. It’s because rich bastards get in the way, every step of the way.

                You go ahead and celebrate over getting tossed a crumb. I’m staying angry until we get what we deserve.

      • hawkguy@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Wasn’t there a post on some “ask”-community a couple of days ago with a question like “If you could live in a socialist country, would you?”. And I think the implied socialism is something like this?

        • Enkrod@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Hahahaha Germany a socialist country!

          Our great public wellfare system including healthcare, pensions etc. are called Rhine-Capitalism for a reason. In fact our conservatives, the Christian Democrats build it.

          What these people call “socialism” was build by the German religious conservatives (admittedly to keep the social democrats and unions from gaining even more power), which might explain why we keep laughing so hard at Fox News Fuckwits calling Germany a socialist country.

          • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            "look at these SOCIALISTS they put up some guardrails to prevent people from easily falling into the giant meatgrinder that says CAPITALISM. "

            It should be noted even from the most barbaric economist brain measurement like GDP that Germany outperforms the US on that front and its partly because of these policies that prevent peoples minds and bodies from turning into paste like they do in the US.

    • Stumblinbear@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      Continuous sick leave is different from sick days. Many states require sick leave, and the US guarantees 12 weeks leave through FMLA, though it’s unpaid, with the government picking up payments after that (iirc). Regardless, a metric ton of companies offer paid long-term sick leave by just carrying insurance policies that pay out your salary if you have a doctor’s note.

      I have unlimited vacation time which also applies to sick days, and the company pushes people to use it. I’m looking to have taken around six weeks this year.

      I’m aware this is not a common occurrence, but it’s not as though there’s absolutely no laws around this and nobody has paid sick days at all.

      • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Even my shitty little country has universal healthcare and paid sick leave. Employees can call in sick for couple of days, after which they have to open up a sick leave with the doctor. At this point government picks up paying them good chunk of their salary. After two months there’s a mandatory panel of doctors meeting which decides if leave needs to be extended further.