Ballot measure for paid sick leave is set to launch

OMAHA — Nebraskans who work in businesses large and small would earn at least some paid sick leave under a new ballot initiative petition drive being pushed in the state.

A diverse group of Nebraska anti-poverty advocates, many of whom worked to raise the state’s minimum wage the same way, filed paperwork Thursday with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office to be able to gather signatures to get the measure on the ballot during the 2024 general election.

Jo Giles, executive director of the Women’s Fund of Omaha, one of the groups pressing for the change, said the advocates want to make sure people remember what the coronavirus pandemic exposed — the need for paid sick days. Another group pressing for change tweeted about the petition drive filing, Nebraska Appleseed.

At least 250,000 Nebraskans working full-time jobs lack any form of paid sick days, Giles said. Many people in this group go to work sick or are forced to choose between leaving sick children unattended or caring for their kids without pay.

The potential language of the petition is still being ironed out with the Secretary of State’s Office, in a process that could take two to three weeks before the wording is released. The group plans a kickoff after the language is finalized.

Giles said the petition would ask Nebraskans to sign onto requiring small businesses with fewer than 20 employees to provide a minimum of five paid sick days per year. It would require larger businesses to provide seven sick days.

The petition would conform to the state’s current labor laws, meaning that if voters put it on the ballot and approve the change, mandatory sick leave also would apply to parttime employees, a group Giles said is often left without.

“People should be able to take care of themselves when they get sick,” Giles said. “We think this is a reasonable approach that respects the needs of employees but also leaves room for differences between staffing.”

The ballot initiative is aimed at “setting a floor” or minimum for paid sick leave in Nebraska, Giles said. She said it would not lower any employee’s accrued sick leave or override negotiated union contracts.

During the pandemic, about two thirds of Nebraska’s businesses surveyed by the state offered their full-time employees paid sick leave, and less than a quarter of those businesses offered paid sick leave to part-time employees.

Lack of paid sick leave benefits affects workers in some sectors more than others. People working in restaurants, hotels, factories, construction, and distribution warehouses went without more often than others.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit people in many of those industries harder than others, costing many their productivity, their pay and, for some, their lives, people have testified to the Legislature during hearings on one of the most recent bills to require paid sick leave.