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Vicki Shabo

Momentum Sparks New Campaigns, More Progress

| May 23, 2013

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The success and progress of paid sick days campaigns in Portland, Ore., and New York City have added to the momentum around this common sense policy and sparked new campaigns and progress in other states and cities. Here’s the latest:

  • In New Jersey, the New Jersey Time to Care Coalition — a diverse group of more than 65 unions and research, advocacy and community-based organizations — welcomed the introduction of a paid sick and safe leave bill for the state in the Assembly this week. The New Jersey Star-Ledger Editorial Board has already weighed in with its support for the measure.
  • In Tacoma, Washington, a broad-based coalition led by Healthy Tacoma is building off of Seattle’s successful paid sick days campaign and the growing support for state paid sick days legislation by launching its own initiative. Unions, businesses, local public officials and others are getting on board to support the effort, which would increase access to paid sick days for the more than 40,000 Tacoma residents who currently cannot earn them.

We will keep you posted as these exciting campaigns progress!

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.

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