BOSTON -- President Barack Obama on Monday signed an executive order that will require federal contractors to offer employees up to seven paid sick days a year, a move that the White House said could benefit more than 300,000 workers.
Obama unveiled the directive during a Labor Day speech at a union rally in Boston as he continues a year-long effort to pressure Congress to approve legislation that would provide similar benefits for millions of private-sector workers.
An estimated 44 million private-sector workers -- about 40 percent of the workforce -- do not have access to paid sick leave, according to the White House.
The president highlighted a Massachusetts law, approved by voters in November, that provides employees with up to 40 hours of sick leave per year. The state law took effect July 1 and is expected to affect 900,000 workers who previously received no paid leave, the White House said.
In Boston, Obama was flanked by prominent Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and a giant banner reading "Workers and Community" in red, white and blue. Labor leaders Randi Weingarten and Mary Kay Henry joined Obama for the flight on Air Force One, during which Obama signed the order.
"Right now, you have parents who have to choose between losing income or staying home with a sick child," Obama told a crowd of 765 people, including many labor union officials, during the annual Greater Boston Labor Council breakfast sponsored by the AFL-CIO.
Under the president's executive order, workers on federal contracts will be eligible for paid leave if they are sick or caring for a sick relative, the White House said. They will earn one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, with a maximum of seven days a year, officials said. The order will affect contracts starting in 2017.
Business groups said Obama's order would make it harder for small businesses to retain federal contracts and could hinder economic growth.
"Once again President Obama is using the federal procurement system to do something it has never been designed to do: usurp the legislative authority of Congress to determine appropriate workplace policies," said Randy Johnson, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The White House wouldn't specify the cost to federal contractors to implement the executive order. The Labor Department said any costs would be offset by savings that contractors would see as a result of lower attrition rates and increased worker loyalty, but it released no specific information.
The president sought to draw a contrast between his administration's policies and those of Republican candidates for the White House. The GOP believes the best way to stimulate the economy is to cut taxes and loosen regulation, Obama said.
Republicans think, "'You just wait, you look up at the sky, and prosperity will come raining down on us from the top of whatever high-rise in New York City,'" he said. "But that's not how the economy works." He added that the GOP's mindset has been "wrecking the economy for a long, long time."
The gesture to workers' groups came as Obama works to smooth over tensions with the labor movement over his trade agenda. Major unions are opposing Obama's push for trade deals with Asia and Europe, with some threatening to work against congressional Democrats who voted to support those talks. Unions have warned that the deals, if reached, could lead to widespread job elimination. Obama has signed a law providing money to retrain workers if their jobs go overseas.
The White House and congressional Democrats have championed parental leave and sick leave laws as support has grown for such measures in many parts of the country.
Obama signed a presidential memorandum in January 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.
Despite a push by the Obama administration, however, proposals for paid sick leave have languished in the GOP-controlled Congress. Legislation to establish sick leave for private-sector workers was approved by the Senate in the spring with bipartisan support, but despite momentum for such laws, several Republican candidates running for president opposed the measure.
Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett traveled to several states in the spring to promote paid-leave policies.
The United States is one of a handful of countries that does not offer paid leave. Congressional Republicans have introduced measures offering workplace flexibility and tax credits in some instances, but they have opposed mandating paid leave.
The push for paid leave has gained momentum across the country, though it tends to be in Democratic-leaning states and cities. Last year, according to Emily's List spokesman Marcy Stech, initiatives for paid sick leave passed in Massachusetts; Oakland, Calif.; and the New Jersey cities of Montclair and Trenton. Washington, D.C., adopted a sick leave standard in 2008 that includes "safe" days for victims of domestic violence, and Chicago passed a nonbinding referendum in support of paid leave that includes family leave.
The order is the latest move by Obama to use his power over federal contracts to institute on a small slice of the labor market the changes that he cannot persuade Congress to enact for the whole country.
Among other things, he has signed orders requiring contractors to pay higher minimum wages, ban retaliation against workers who discuss their compensation, provide employees more information about their pay and protect gay and transgender workers from discrimination.
The administration has also used its regulatory power to affect workplaces outside the federal orbit. Among other things, it has advanced rules aimed at guaranteeing millions more Americans the right to extra overtime pay, stopping employers from denying workers basic protections by classifying them as contractors, and making it easier for employees of contractors and franchises to bargain collectively with corporations.
Obama's exercise of his authority over federal contractors has generated objections from business groups that argue he is going too far and from lawmakers who complain that he is circumventing the legislative process. Critics say he is piling expensive mandates onto companies doing business with the federal government as a sop to his political base in organized labor, without accounting for additional costs.
In July, eight Republicans who serve as committee or subcommittee chairmen sent the administration a letter asking it to withdraw one such executive order affecting federal contractors.
"The proposed guideline and rule institute new burdensome and unnecessary requirements that will delay an already cumbersome federal procurement process and will impose additional costs on employers, federal agencies and American taxpayers," they wrote.
Information for this article was contributed by David Nakamura of The Washington Post; by Josh Lederman and Ken Thomas of The Associated Press; and by Peter Baker of The New York Times.
A Section on 09/08/2015