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Families in one state and three municipalities were big winners in last night’s elections in one respect: paid sick leave. On the ballot in Massachusetts as well as in Trenton and Montclair, N.J., and Oakland, Calif., (where a new law will expand the existing state requirements), paid sick leave won all four times.

Voter support for paid sick leave is bipartisan: In 2010, 89 percent of “strong Democrats,” 59 percent of “strong Republicans” and 77 percent of Independents said they supported universal access to a minimum number of paid sick days. That is borne out by these results. Massachusetts, which elected its first Republican governor since Mitt Romney, also now has the nation’s strongest requirement for paid sick leave: Workers at businesses with 11 or more employees can earn up to 40 hours of paid sick time each year; staff members at smaller companies would earn 40 hours of annual unpaid sick time.

That is a victory for workers in those areas; for customers, who may see fewer sick service employees handing over their lunches; and for employers who want to do the right thing, but feel hampered by the need to compete with less employee-friendly businesses. And it’s a win for advocates for those employees and employers, who have seen a number of victories of late.

Massachusetts is the third state to require paid sick leave (the others are California and Connecticut) and a number of municipalities, including New York City and Portland, Ore., have recently passed paid sick leave laws. Those advocates will likely be dusting off languishing proposals for a national paid leave policy (like the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act) while eyeing local and state elections in 2016 and beyond.