Tell Committee Members to Vote YES on PAID LEAVE - (SB166/HB278)

Senate Bill 166 will give local governments the option to set limited standards on paid leave for government contractors in their community. This gives them an important tool to ensure that public contracts funded by our taxpayer dollars help create good quality jobs for families in our communities.

Every Tennessee community is unique and faces its own challenges. Local leaders across the state need the autonomy to consult with their constituents, and the freedom to use every available tool to bring good jobs with high-quality pay and benefits to their individual communities.

Tennessee has one of the most restrictive wage & benefit preemption laws of any state, which explicitly prohibits localities from setting their own standards on wages & benefits, even for businesses that contract with the local government. SB166 would simply give local governments the option to set limited standards on paid leave for contractors funded by public taxpayer dollars in their communities, bringing Tennessee in line with most of our peer states across the South.

A 2022 Tennessean Op-Ed authored by Oak Ridge City Councilwoman Ellen Smith outlines why localities need the freedom to set their own standards for contractors: “Imagine that your local government hires an outside company to clean its buildings, or the local school district contracts with vendors for food services and transportation. For the safety of your children, other workers and the general public, the government and school district might reasonably want to ask service vendors to help prevent their workers from bringing illness onto the job site by giving those workers paid leave. Paid leave helps reduce the spread of illness... Most of us don’t want our family members or our employees to be exposed to people who know they are sick.”

Join We Decide Tennessee in our fight for local decision making to help promote high-quality jobs for families in our communities! Send a letter telling committee members to vote YES on SB166!