By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post, January 15, 2015
President Obama signed a presidential memorandum Thursday directing agencies to allow federal workers to take six weeks of advanced paid sick leave to care for a new child or ill family members. The move came as Obama also called on Congress to expand these benefits further by passing the Healthy Families Act, which would grant Americans seven days a year of paid sick time.
To highlight the importance of paid leave, Obama met Tuesday afternoon with three women in Charmington's, a cafe in Baltimore City whose owners are proponents of both raising the minimum wage and providing sick leave to employees. The women included Amanda Rothchild, a co-owner and managing partner of Charmington's; Mary Stein, the mother of two grown children and a school nurse in the Howard County public school; and Morvika “Vika” Jordan, the mother of two teenagers who took just two months' maternity leave when her daughter was born because she could afford to be out of work without pay. ...