With the anticipated enactment of state legislation guaranteeing paid family in New Jersey, the Garden State will become the third state in the country, after California and the state of Washington, to guarantee its residents paid family leave. Next month, we will feature an interview with one of the advocates who helped move the bill forward in New Jersey.

This month, we focus on Massachusetts, one of about a dozen states where either guaranteed paid sick leave or paid family leave legislation is under consideration. The Massachusetts bill, Senate Bill 1073- An Act Establishing Paid Sick Days that was recently reported favorably out of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.

The bill would ensure that all Massachusetts workers have a minimum of seven days of paid time off annually to take care of their own health needs and those of family members.

The Massachusetts Paid Leave Coalition, which includes dozens of consumer, labor, and other groups, guaranteeing seven earned paid sick days annually provides the following benefits:

1. Allows workers time to deal with their own health problems,
2. Reduces the spread of disease at work, creating public health benefits,
3. Allows workers time off to care for a sick child and not have to worry that they may lose their job, and
4. Provides workers time to care for an infirm elderly parent.

According to Ellen Bruce, national president of the Older Women's League (OWL), and director of the gerontology program at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, about 47% of all workers in the state don't have a single day of paid sick leave. Bruce points out that "making the workplace conducive to caregivers, whether they are caring for children or adults with disabilities or our parents, is a really important issue for our country to come to terms with if we want to be a caring society. We continually say that this is one of our goals.

"We must have workplaces that accommodate these needs," says Bruce. "That's why OWL is involved with this. There are many good public policy reasons for supporting guaranteed sick leave - not the least of which is the public health issue of reducing the spread of illnesses by workers who come to work sick - but OWL's interest is to allow women, the primary caregivers - and men also - to be able to both work and care for family members."

Senate Bill 1073 is expected to be taken up by the full Massachusetts Senate as part of the state budget debate within the coming week.

For further information, contact Barbara Gutman of the Massachusetts Paid Leave Coalition at bgutman @jewishalliance.org

For information on the status of similar legislation in other states, contact the National Partnership for Women and Families at www.nation alpartnership.org