The Healthy Families, Healthy City Campaign is proposing a city mandate requiring paid sick leave for all employees, allowing lower-income workers the ability to visit a doctor or recover from an illness without worrying about getting fired or falling short on rent or utility bills.

According to Ald. Austin King, District 8, who has an active role in generating discussion on the issue and pushing it to the City Council, paid sick leave is necessary.

King said only half of the employees in Madison have access to paid sick leave. Not having access to paid sick leave puts people in difficult situations, King added.

“[Not having paid sick leave] forces people to make choices they shouldn’t have to make,” King said. “It forces people to choose between their [own health], or their family’s health, and their paycheck.”

Vicky Selkowe, a leader for the HFHCC and an attorney for the University of Wisconsin Law School Neighborhood Law Project, pointed to some studies from institutions such as Cornell University that present compelling evidence that paid sick leave financially benefits some employers.

“When workers show up to work sick, it costs employers far more than if they had stayed home,” Selkowe said. “Paid sick leave also leads to less turnover, fewer firings and, as a result, fewer resources used on training new employees.”

Though there are benefits, criticism that mandatory paid sick leave is anti-business has met the HFHCC. King gave his response to detractors.

“I wish they would grow their vocabulary a little bit,” King said, “The ‘anti-business’ claim is definitely a reach. We don’t call them ‘anti-family’ or ‘anti-poor.'”

Ald. Zach Brandon, District 7, owner of Laundry 101, said he has reservations regarding the push for a city ordinance requiring paid sick leave.

“I would have liked to see the campaign not begin by looking to make this a mandatory thing,” Brandon said. “I would have liked to see them say they would cooperate with local businesses to resolve this issue before jumping to making it mandatory.”

Brandon said the campaign deserves attention and makes a valid point. He agrees that a single mother should not have to choose between paying rent and taking care of sick kids.

Brandon pointed to other solutions that he feels are more relevant, like providing health care and health insurance to employees. Fixing this, according to Brandon, would allow employers to avoid the flaw in the burden of proof for paid sick leave.

“If there is no requirement for proving illness, then an employer is just being mandated to provide paid vacation days,” Brandon said.

The HFHCC effort informally kicked off Aug. 10 and gained momentum Aug. 22 at a town-hall meeting at the Villager Mall. The town-hall meeting provided a forum for initial discussion of details concerning the push for paid sick leave.

“We’re still in the process of gathering input,” Selkowe said. “We’d like to have gathered enough information to bring a detailed proposal to [the city] later in September.”

King said there is a lot of work to do on this issue, but he hopes to have the ordinance ready to introduce to the City Council by late September or early October.