In Nebraska, Paid Sick Leave Benefits 250k Workers

The ballot initiative victory demonstrated the power of building robust coalitions

To win paid sick leave in Nebraska, Rural Democracy grantee Nebraska Appleseed brought together a coalition of diverse partners. Everyday Nebraskans, policy experts, and local businesses joined forces to ensure this ballot initiative passed last fall.

One paid leave champion, for example, originally joined Nebraska Appleseed motivated by her experience with food insecurity. After a campaign win on SNAP benefits, she wanted to improve paid sick leave — another issue that touched her life. She became one of the campaign’s prominent leaders, helping to establish paid sick leave as a statewide priority.

Building a legacy

Nebraska Appleseed has repeatedly advanced successful worker-centered policies that benefit rural Nebraskans. They previously campaigned — and won — on issues like Medicaid expansion and raising the state minimum wage. From those experiences, they learned the importance of running a campaign that involves people directly affected by an issue. Carrying over those learnings and that momentum, Nebraska Appleseed launched a paid sick leave campaign in 2022. It was a top priority for many Nebraska meatpackers and would benefit workers across the state.

“It was something that was really bubbling up as a big problem,” explained Becky Gould, Nebraska Appleseed executive director. 

Before taking the policy to the ballot box, Nebraska Appleseed organizers pushed state legislators to enact paid sick leave for five years in a row. Frustrated by the lack of movement, they turned directly to voters with a ballot initiative.

“The impact is huge,” Gould pointed out. “And you get to control the policy.”

By controlling the policy text, they included not only paid sick leave but measures to ensure workers can utilize it. The new law has protections against retaliation for taking paid sick leave, and employers who don’t honor the new policy are liable for the victim’s lawyer fees.

Learning from local people

From the outset of the ballot initiative campaign, Nebraska Appleseed leaned into their understanding of local people’s interests. In early statewide polls, they saw almost 70% support for paid sick leave, indicating the tremendous popularity of the proposal. To get the issue on the ballot, they collected 138,000 signatures, well beyond the legally required 90,000. 

With a broad coalition and ample support, Nebraska Appleseed was victorious in winning paid sick leave for working Nebraskans. The ballot measure passed in all but four of Nebraska’s 93 counties, earning 74% of the vote.

They achieved paid sick leave protections for 250,000 Nebraskans who never received that benefit before, including one hour of paid sick leave per 30 hours worked for full- and part-time employees. Under the new policy, small employers offer up to five days of paid sick leave, while larger businesses give up to seven days. 

“We felt really good about coming out of that process,” said Gould of the ballot initiative campaign

Rural people build power

For Gould, the successful ballot initiative campaign highlighted the value of building coalitions across geographies with working people. It was crucial, she said, to center people directly impacted by the lack of paid sick leave in the state. Patience and deliberate thinking during critical phases like the three-month policy design process went a long way, too. 

Building bridges with allies across the Nebraska landscape played an important role in the campaign’s success as well. Rural people really care about their small businesses and wanted to know how it would affect their local grocery stores and diners. So the 200-plus businesses championing this issue were important spokespeople who noted we all benefit when workers are healthy, families can take care of each other, and businesses have reliable staffing.

Nebraska Appleseed’s victorious campaign showcases rural people coming together to make decisions about the issues that impact their lives. Nebraskans created this effort to solve problems they care about, ran the campaign, voted on it en masse – and won. With your support, we can back groups like this one to make even more progress for rural Americans.