Couldn’t make it to last month’s policy workshops? Find out more about two of our policy priorities on our website where we’ve posted our presentations from the Clarksburg and Hurricane events.
Paid Sick Days
Many low-wage workers have to choose between going to work when they are sick or losing a day’s pay. Keeping Families Healthy: West Virginia Earned Sick Days and Family Medical Leave explains how providing paid days off benefits both employees and employers. The WVCBP, WV FREE and SEIU will take this issue to next month’s Policy Symposium.
VERA
Another workplace benefit is Voluntary Employee Retirement Accounts (VERA). Helping employers provide a retirement plan for their employees would help many West Virginia workers save for the future. Read more in Stemming the Retirement Crisis.
Learn more about these policy ideas and many more at the 2014 Policy Symposium on September 9 and 10. Registration is now open. The Our Children Our Future Policy Workshops and Symposium is supported by local and regional sponsorships, the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition, the West Virginia Community HUB and the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.
WVCBP board member Dr. Michelle Foster was featured in this week’s Innerviews in the Charleston Gazette. We are proud to have Michelle on our board and are in awe over all the great work she is doing with KISRA.
Thanks, Michelle!
WVCBP Executive Director Ted Boettner provided insight on two issues making the headlines this week. Today’s front page of the Charleston Gazette was all about what new EPA regulations would mean for the state’s coal industry. Ted and others pointed out that focusing solely on these regulations denies the broader reality of why coal is declining in southern West Virginia.
Bargain stores are successful in West Virginia and provide a place for low-income families to make their dollar go farther. Ted explains in this week’s Charleston Gazette that cheap choices are not always healthy ones for poor families struggling to make ends meet.
Yesterday was our last day with WVCBP Health Policy Analyst Brandon Merritt and Outreach Coordinator Alyson Clements. Brandon will start medical school very soon and Alyson has moved to Washington DC to join her husband who began working there this spring. Best luck to them both! They will be missed!
