The Hidden Threat to Air Travel: Unpaid Sick Leave

An initiative on the ballot in SeaTac, Wash., asks voters if they want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour — that’s about twice the federal minimum — and it’s part of our Making Sen$e story on the livable wage airing Tuesday. But if voters approve Proposition 1, as it’s called in SeaTac, the small city surrounding the Seattle-Tacoma airport, local workers will also get paid sick leave — many for the first time. We spoke with workers and business owners alike about how not having paid sick leave impacts many more people than those living and working in SeaTac.

Monday, we explored how people get by on minimal-wage budgets. Senior correspondent Hari Sreenivasan followed a New York City fast-food worker living paycheck-to-paycheck. And Paul Solman spoke with Dr. Diana Pearce, who created the “Self-Sufficiency Standard” as a bare-bones budget for people in different areas of the country to survive without public or private assistance. Read more about the Standard and how Pearce created it here.

This entry is cross-posted on the Rundown — NewsHour’s blog of news and insight.

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