LOS ANGELES - For maybe five times in the last 15 years, Manuela Mendez has had to drag herself to work at a fast-food restaurant in La Mirada, coughing and congested.

"I go to work because we need the money," she said in Spanish. "It's difficult to work. I carry microbes that contaminate my work mates, and that's a problem for the customers."

The 40-year-old mother of two does not think it is fair that she and an estimated 6 million California workers - about 40 percent of the state workforce - do not have the right to take a day of paid sick leave to recuperate from an illness or injury, see a doctor or care for a family member who is ill.

Mendez, an activist with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is part of a broad coalition that includes labor unions, health advocates and women's groups backing a bill that would give all employees in the state at least five paid sick days a year.

The bill has passed the Assembly on a 45-33 vote and is expected to clear the state Senate this summer.

If that happens, business lobbyists are expected to ask Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for a veto. He has a solid history of siding with the California Chamber of Commerce when it comes to vetoing bills on the chamber's self-styled list of "job killers."

The measure by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, a San Francisco Democrat, is modeled on recently approved municipal laws in San Francisco and Washington and is similar to proposals being considered in a dozen other states and in Milwaukee.

"People shouldn't have to worry that if they get sick, they'll lose their job," Ma said. "Paid sick days are good for a healthy economy."

Most California business organizations disagree. Ma's bill is near the top of the chamber's list of alleged anti-employer legislation. Granting paid sick leave would hurt workers more than it would help, chamber lobbyist Marc Burgat contends.

"If you increase some costs to employers, they'll have to decrease other costs by cutting hours or the number of employees," he testified at a recent hearing on the bill.

Although business lobbyists say that granting California workers paid sick leave will cause widespread economic dislocations, that hasn't been the case in San Francisco, the only place in the state that currently mandates such a benefit.

"I can only say that the sky has not fallen in San Francisco because of the sick leave law," said Greg Asay, a senior analyst with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. "San Francisco's economy has been very strong. It's striking how relatively unscathed we've been with the recession or probably recession."