America is in the middle of what is projected to become the worst flu epidemic in a decade, and across the country workers risk making it worse by going to their jobs while sick. They do so because American workers have little access to paid sick leave, but some cities are considering enshrining such leave into law.

City councils in Portland, Oregon and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are both considering new paid sick leave laws. Under the Portland proposal, all businesses would have to grant workers at least 40 hours of sick leave each year; for businesses with more than six employees, that leave time would be paid. A report from the Main Street Alliance of Oregon, which supports paid sick leave, said business expenses would grow at most by 1.9 percent under the law.

In Philadelphia, where a paid sick leave law was passed in 2011 but was vetoed by the mayor, lawmakers are making another attempt. The bill is backed by local restaurant workers, thousands of whom go to work while sick each day. Nearly 80 percent of food workers do not have paid sick leave, and 60 percent say they have reported to work while sick. A majority of Americans support providing paid sick leave to food workers.

The lack of paid sick leave is its own epidemic in the United States, where 40 percent of private sector workers and 80 percent of low-income workers don’t receive a single paid sick day. Lack of paid sick leave led to an additional 5 million cases of the H1N1 flu virus in 2009.

And though business leaders in Portland and Philadelphia oppose the laws, perhaps they shouldn’t. Research suggests that paid sick leave reduces employee turnover and increases productivity, meaning providing it to employees has substantial benefits for the companies’ bottom lines too.

President Obama yesterday nominated prosecutor Mary Jo White to become the next head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. An important part of her task will be implementing the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, which is slowly grinding through the rule-making process.

According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, there is still quite a bit of work to do, as 52 percent of the law is not yet in place, and no rulemaking at all has occurred for nearly one-quarter of its provisions:

Overall, GAO identified 236 provisions of the act that require regulators to issue rulemakings across nine key areas. As of December 2012, regulators had issued final rules for about 48 percent of these provisions; however, in some cases the dates by which affected entities had to comply with the rules had yet to be reached. Of the remaining provisions, regulators had proposed rules for about 29 percent, and rulemakings had not occurred for about 23 percent.

Banks have already managed to win delays on key regulations, and successfully convinced international regulators to water down other new rules. Further delay on the part of regulators will just extend the amount of time that taxpayers are on the hook for the financial system’s failures.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) used his State of the State speech this week to propose a 10-percent income tax cut that would cost the state so much money that even leading Republicans won’t support it. Pence’s proposal would cut the state’s income tax rate from 3.4 percent to 3.06 percent, a plan that follows up on corporate tax cuts and a phasing out of the state’s inheritance tax.

Indiana currently has a budget surplus, but it is one that was built largely on spending cuts to programs that benefit the state’s neediest residents. Pence’s plan would only exacerbate that problem, leaving Indiana with too little money to fully invest in education and other programs, state House Speaker Brian Bosma (R) told WISH TV:

To cut taxes the Pence budget will give schools spending increases of just 1 percent and Speaker Bosma says that not enough.

“We’ll probably invest more in that direction,” he said. In comments made in his Statehouse office Bosma also said the state needs to spend more on highway funding suggested there may be no middle ground between his position and the governor’s.

“It may be difficult to invest in all the critical needs we have before us and still accept the governor’s tax cut proposal,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it’s off the table.”

While Pence pitched it as a tax cut for every Indiana citizen, the Institution of Taxation and Economic Policy found that about 12 percent of Hoosiers, most of them low-income, would see no benefit from Pence’s plan. The plan is also wildly regressive, providing more than half its benefits to the wealthiest 20 percent of Indiana taxpayers. The average tax cut for the state’s top 1 percent would be more than $2,200, while the average middle-income taxpayer would receive just $102. The poorest 20 percent, ITEP found, would receive an average tax cut of just $18.

Republicans have proposed a compromise plan that would still provide large tax cuts and make Indiana the latest state, along with North Carolina, Louisiana, Kansas, and Nebraska, where Republicans are pushing tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy.