When his father died from COVID-19 in 2020, James Gerraughty didn’t have to choose between working and grieving.
That’s because his employer provides three days of paid bereavement for the death of a parent. This gave Gerraughty enough time to drive from the Altoona area to Buffalo, New York, to collect his dad’s remains.
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Other states have filled this gap in labor law, to varying degrees. California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington all mandate some form of bereavement leave. Spotlight PA contacted the chambers of commerce in those states to ask how the laws affect the workforce and business. Most either declined to comment or did not respond.
Loren Furman, the head of Colorado’s chamber, said there wasn’t much pushback when the state amended its paid sick leave law in 2023 to mandate that employees be permitted to use this time for bereavement. “The smaller employers, I’m sure they had a little more of a struggle,” she said. “But the larger to mid-sized companies told us that they did this already.”
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