Obama Signs Executive Order On Paid Sick Days

Federal contractors will have to offer employees up to seven days of leave per year.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Labor Day requiring that federal contractors provide their employees with paid sick leave, the latest in a string of executive actions aimed at raising the bar in the U.S. workplace. 

According to the White House, the order will give roughly 300,000 workers under federal contracts up to seven paid sick days per year. Workers will earn one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked. The rules will start with new federal contracts signed starting in 2017.

Although most U.S. workers do receive paid sick days through their jobs, roughly 39 percent of private-sector workers do not, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The workers who don't have paid sick leave are disproportionately employed in low-wage industries like restaurants and retail.

The White House has named expanding paid leave as one of its top priorities. After the president highlighted the issue in his State of the Union address in January, The Huffington Post pointed out that if the president wanted to bring paid leave to more workers, the easiest way to do so would be to issue an executive order like the one  signed Monday. Last month, The New York Times reported that a draft of an executive order related to sick leave was circulating at the Labor Department.-  ReadMore atHuffingtonpost

Obama Signs Executive Order On Paid Sick Days

Obama's Labor Day executive order: more paid sick leave ...OCRegister