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This year, we have seen incredible momentum in the fight for paid sick days laws. As we’ve celebrated great victories from Seattle to Connecticut, we’ve also added to the growing list of organizations committed to seeing paid sick days standards become a reality throughout the country. Public health advocates form an essential core of this coalition. After all, they know that failing to let workers earn paid sick days can harm the health of individuals, families and communities, especially when some of the jobs least likely to offer paid sick days are the most likely to require frequent contact with the public.

So thank you to organizations such as the American Public Health Association, Trust for America’s Health and the National Association of School Nurses for their longstanding support. And thank you to the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) for, just this month, making paid sick days policies a priority. As NACCHO explained:

The result of failure to provide paid sick leave is that the entire public is at increased risk, while low-wage and part-time workers, given their potential risk of loss of income or employment, have an unequal burden to bear when asked to protect the public’s health.

We couldn’t agree more. That’s why we are working to ensure more workers have this basic right. The public health community has been a great ally, and we look forward to working toward future paid sick days victories together.