As an employer, I do pay my employees sick leave. But, that's my decision. I had an employee who had worked for me for 5 years have a hernia operation. Instead of going on L&I, I paid him for his 6 weeks off. But, that's my decision, not a decision for the city council to make. If my employees work hard they rarely see less than 40 hours on their check even if they work a bit less. Again, that's the employer's decision.

As Poodle Smolt said, if you don't like where you're working or the benefits that are offered do something else.

I had an employee who was young and dumb. He had a kid they couldn't afford to have in the first place. He asked me one day why my wife and I didn't have children and I told him we were saving our money and wife was working towards her Masters Degree so we could take care of a child or two when the time came. His response to me was "why can't the state just pay for it?" You can take it from there.