Advocates have pressed for four years for a way for 700,000 Maryland low-income workers to earn paid sick leave on the job. The House version of the bill has finally made it past the money committee and will get a vote on the floor.

/PM BlogSpace Report/ After three years in which a paid sick leave bill never got past the money committees – the House Economic Matters Committee and the Senate Finance Committee – HB 0580, a bill providing for uncovered workers to earn paid sick days in the course of their work – has emerged and will get to the House floor. The crossfiled bill, SB0472, appears to be still dawdling in the Senate Finance Committee but the emergence of the House bill from committee limbo to the floor makes supporters encouraged about the prospects in both chambers.

Progressive Maryland has been a strong ally of Working Matters, the state organization that has pressed this issue for four years, and applauds this apparent breakthrough. Read more about the need for a paid, earned sick leave program and how it could change the lives of many low-income people in our recent blog post.