Gov. Ned Lamont joined workers and labor unions Tuesday pushing for a major expansion of the sick leave law.

Currently, only larger employers are required to offer sick days to "service workers" like cashiers, nurses, childcare workers and hair stylists.

The governor's proposal would require all employers to give employees paid sick days regardless of the number of employees.

Currently, state law only requires employers with more than 50 employees to provide paid sick days. Workers say the current law leaves many of them behind.

“Our current paid sick days laws include important protections for some workers, however there are broad categories of workers who are left unprotected,” Gov. Lamont said in prepared remarks. “If there’s anything we have learned from the recent outbreak of a viral pandemic, it’s that illness can spready quickly, and workers are sometimes left in a situation in which they have to choose between going to the workplace sick and risk spreading that illness to their coworkers and clients, or sacrificing a day’s wage and be unable to support themselves and their families. This proposal will modernize our paid sick days statutes and acknowledge the evolving landscape of work in a post-pandemic world.”

According to the Office of the Governor, An Act Modernizing the Paid Sick Days Statutes recently received a public hearing in the Labor and Public Employees Committee and it is pending further legislative action.