Paid Sick Leave
Origin: Oregon State Legislature
Bill Name/Number: Senate Bill 454
Link: Click here
Summary: Adopted in June 2015, S.B. 454 allows Portland’s progressive paid sick days law to remain in place while
creating a floor for all other municipalities within the state to provide paid sick leave for all workers.
Talking Points & Important Information:
• In 2015, only four states have passed paid sick leave legislation statewide.
• This statewide act allows Portland’s paid sick days law to remain in place, guaranteeing workers in business
with six or more employees to earn paid sick time and workers in smaller businesses to earn unpaid sick time.
Elsewhere in the state, workers in businesses with 10 or more employees will earn one hour of paid sick and safe
time for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours annually. Workers in businesses with fewer than 10 employees
will earn the equivalent amount of unpaid, job-protected sick and safe time.
• It is important to note that while the act contains language that preempts all local municipalities save Portland,
it does not limit employer standards or collective bargaining agreements of greater terms.
• For American workers, a good job has many defining characteristics: a fair wage or salary, health care benefits,
a safe work environment, and the ability to take time off work when needed without losing pay. However, more
than 40 percent of private sector workers and more than 80 percent of low-wage workers do not have paid sick
days to care for their own health. Forty million American workers have no access to paid sick days at all and
another 4.2 million haven’t been on the job long enough to be eligible for paid sick days.
• Paid sick days is a public health issue: Adults without paid sick days are 1.5 times more likely to report going
to work with a contagious illness like the flu or a viral infection – risking infection of others in the workplace.
For example, approximately 78 percent of food service and hotel workers don’t have a single paid day whereas
employees in child care centers and nursing homes overwhelmingly lack paid sick days.
• Paid sick days can result in a 40 percent decrease of workplace transmission for contagious infections like the
flu.
2015 POLICY BOOK
STATE
LEVEL
PAGE 62