Virus Paid Leave Expands Even as Democrat-Led Virginia Says ‘No’

The pandemic has made for an active year in paid-leave policymaking but hardly the landslide victory that advocates of broader worker protections might have hoped.

Within days of California enacting a broader virus-specific paid sick time mandate this month, a committee of the Democratic-majority Virginia Senate voted to sideline a bill that would have required employers to offer paid quarantine leave for workers who are sick or under medical orders to quarantine due to Covid-19.

Also this month, Philadelphia temporarily expanded its paid sick leave mandate to cover gig workers, and Oregon launched a $30 million program offering state-funded payments ...