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Connecticut Poll: Paid Sick Days are a Voting Issue

| Sep 1, 2011

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Connecticut recently became the first state to pass a law offering many workers the right to earn paid sick days. Now new poll results released by the National Partnership for Women & Families for Labor Day reveal that a majority of the state’s voters look favorably upon the law — and the lawmakers who voted for it:

“[T]he issue of paid sick days brings together a consensus coalition of voters from across the political spectrum,” Hart Research concluded [ ]. “An overwhelming share of voters believes that paid sick days laws protect working families and balance the needs of employees and employers. Moreover, the survey results show that paid sick days has significant potential as a mobilizing issue during campaigns and elections, and particularly energizes hard-to-reach constituencies.”

Learn more about the poll results in our news release.

About the Author

Vicki Shabo

Vicki Shabo

Vicki Shabo is vice president at the National Partnership for Women & Families and is one of the nation's leading experts on paid family and medical leave, paid sick days and the workplace policy advocacy landscape. She previously served for more than four years as the organization's director of work and family programs. Shabo is responsible for the strategic direction of the National Partnership’s work to promote fair and family friendly workplaces and leads the organization’s work on paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, expansion and enforcement of the Family and Medical Leave Act, workplace flexibility, fair pay and pregnancy discrimination. She serves as a contact on workplace policy issues for key national allies, researchers, businesses and state and local advocates and has been quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, USA Today, CNN and MSNBC, among other outlets.

Shabo brings a unique background in law and politics to her work: Prior to joining the National Partnership in 2010, she practiced law in the litigation department at WilmerHale, a large international law firm. Before embarking on a legal career, she worked with both Celinda Lake and Harrison Hickman, serving as a pollster and political strategist to political candidates, ballot campaigns, advocacy organizations and media outlets. Through this work, she developed research and communications expertise on issues of particular concern to women. Shabo's earlier professional experience includes a stint with the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

Shabo graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in politics and American studies from Pomona College, and holds a Master of Arts in political science from the University of Michigan. She earned her law degree with high honors from the University of North Carolina, where she served as editor in chief of the North Carolina Law Review. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Michael R. Murphy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Salt Lake City.