Paid Sick Days

Reports Underscore Why Paid Sick Days Needs to be Legislated
(CLASP - June 30, 2010)

A survey releasedby WorldatWork finds that 40 percent of surveyed employers have attendance policies that appear to punish workers for taking time off from work to recover from illness or take care of a sick family member. This extraordinarily high percentage underscores why workers need protections provided in the pending Healthy Families Act. This type of policy is generally a disciplinary attendance system in which all absences count against workers. Employees need sound work/life balance, including time off to address their health or a loved one's health without worrying about demerits or other repercussions. Since there is no national paid sick days law, absences for illness are unprotected and employers are free to discipline or even terminate employees for taking time off work when they are sick.

Paid Sick Days: Attitudes and Experiences
(National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago - June 16, 2010)

Nearly one in six people polled in a national survey (16 percent) say they have lost a job for taking time off from work to care for a sick child or family member, or to cope with their own illness. The survey was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago this spring.

It finds that the lack of paid sick days is harming our public health, and straining the national health care system, in measurable ways: More than half of workers without paid sick days (55 percent) have gone to work with a contagious illness like the flu, compared to 37 percent of workers with paid sick days. People without paid sick days are twice as likely as those with paid sick days to use hospital emergency rooms (20 percent vs. 10 percent) because they "were unable to take off from work to get medical care during normal job hours." Nearly twice as many workers without paid sick days (24 percent) have sent a sick child to school or daycare than workers with paid sick days (14 percent).

Paid Time off Program and Practices
(WorldatWork - May 2010)

This report found that 40 percent of surveyed employers have attendance policies that appear to punish workers for taking time off from work to recover from illness or take care of a sick family member.

Lack of Paid Sick Days Allowed H1N1 to Spread in the Workplace
(Institute for Women's Policy Research - Feb. 2010)

This report, released by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, finds that while almost 26 million employed Americans age 18 and over may have been infected with the H1N1 flu in 2009, nearly 8 million employees took no time off work while infected. The study suggests that an alarming number of employees attended work while sick. The findings suggest that a lack of paid sick days--especially in the private sector, where two in five workers lack paid sick days--increased the spread of H1N1 spread in the workplace.

Sick In The City: What the Lack of Paid Leave Means for Working New Yorkers

This study, by The Community Service Society (CSS) and A Better Balance (ABB), found that low-income workers without paid sick leave are more likely to go to work sick, send sick children to school, be threatened by their employers, and use the emergency room for medical care than similar workers with paid sick days.

The Need for Paid Parental Leave for Federal Employees: Adapting to a Changing Workforce

This report, from the Institute for Women's Policy Research, examines the need for and benefits of paid parental leave for government employees.

Access to Sick Days Vastly Unequal

This brief report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that only slightly more than half of all American workers are allowed any time off for sick leave: the rest risk losing income and their jobs if they call in sick. It reports that only 16% of low-wage workers have access to sick days, whereas 79% of high-wage workers do.

Employers' Perspectives on San Francisco's Paid Sick Leave Policy

This report, from the Urban Institute, summarizes the challenges San Francisco employers say they faced implementing the nation’s first law requiring paid sick days for all employees. It details employer actions regarding operations, staffing, employee benefit packages, and reporting requirements.

Some Small and Medium-Size Establishments Join Large Ones in Offering Paid Sick Days

This new fact sheet, by The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) has released a new fact sheet presenting the percent of establishments, categorized by size, offering paid sick days, vacation, personal leave, paid family leave, and unpaid family leave.

10 Things That Could Happen To You If You Didn't Have Paid Sick Days

This report by by 9to5, National Association of Working Wome, documents what happens to workers without paid sick days. People reported losing a job when a child breaks his arm or being forced to serve food while having the flu. Three out of four low-wage workers have no paid sick leave. And only one in six part-timers has any paid sick leave.

Here’s a Tip: When Restaurant and Hotel Workers Don’t Have Paid Sick Days, It Hurts Us Allby Jodie Levin-Epstein of CLASP. Restaurant and hotel workers are typically low-paid employees, and their employers rarely provide them with paid sick days. Instead, these workers are forced to make difficult choices when they or their family members are sick, including coming to work sick—which also presents a public health risk. This fact sheet details both the need for paid sick days for restaurant and hotel workers and some current efforts to ensure that workers have them.

Economic Snapshots-Access to Sick Days Vastly Unequal

This Economic Policy Institute Snapshot by economist Elise Gould, examines how sick days are distributed among workers at different income levels. Findings are those who are paid $7.38 or less per hour are also short-changed on sick leave, roughly one out of six low-wage workers can take paid time off when they get sick. The picture is very different at the top of the wage scale, where 79% of workers get paid sick leave.

Working Sick: Getting Stiffed:

This new report by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) exposes how some of America's biggest companies deny their employees paid sick days and jeopardize public health nationwide.

Women and Paid Sick Days: Crucial for Family Well-BeingThis new fact sheet released by the Institute for Women's Policy Research presents a number of alarming statistics about the lack of paid sick days offered to working women and how this affects the health and well being of the entire family.

First-ever hearing on the Healthy Families Act, Tuesday, February 13, 2007, held Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor (HELP) Committee. Read testamonies:

Debra L. Ness, President, National Partnership for Women & Families

Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH of the San Francisco Department of Health

Heidi I. Hartmann, PHD, of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Dr. Jody Heymann, MD, PHD of Harvard and McGill Universities.

Paid Sick Days Legislation: A Legislator's Guide by Jodie Levin-Epstein with Laura Boyd, a joint publication of CLASP and the Women Legislators' Lobby.

One Sick Child Away From Being Fired: When "Opting Out" Is Not an Option

This new report by the University of California, Hastings College of Law Center for WorkLife Law examines how the media protrays the work/family conflict as women "opting out" of fats track careers to stay at home. This study finds that the majority of working parents, noth mothers and fathers, wish they had more time to spend with their families. These findings indicate the real work/family debate should be about Americans parents dealing with inflexible jobs, lack of resources and a committment to do right by ther families.

No Time to Be Sick: Why Everyone Suffers When Workers Don't Have Paid Sick Leave

The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) has compiled a report on American workers and paid sick leave. An astounding 59 million workers in America do not have one single day of paid sick leave and nearly 86 million do not have any paid sick leave to care for their children. Women and low-wage workers recieve less paid sick leave than any other demographic group. This report demostrates how paid sick leave is beneficial and nessasary for everyone, in the family, the community and the nation.