Paid Sick Leave

Basics
Paid sick leave is a basic and inexpensive workplace benefit. Workers earn sick leave hours at a set ratio for each hour worked (one hour of sick leave for each 30 or 40 hours worked, for example), the accrual of hours often beginning after a short probationary period. Workers can then use these hours—up to an annual limit--to recover from illness or to tend to a sick family member. Paid sick leave is a clear benefit to workers. But it also poses a clear benefit to employers, in the form of decreased turnover and increased productivity. And it poses clear social benefits, mitigating the public health risk posed by sick workers—especially in sectors such as food service and child care.

The United States (virtually along among its international peers) lacks any clear commitment to paid sick leave.* The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) offers only unpaid leave, but only for some workers and only for specified serious medical conditions. Local and state sick leave laws (see “current” tab) are few and far between. As a result, roughly 40 percent of American workers have no paid sick days. When these workers get sick, they are either forced to go to work, or stay home without pay and risk losing their job. Access to sick days is also vastly unequal: High-wage workers are more than four times more likely to have sick days than workers at the bottom of the wage scale—those who can least afford to lose pay when they are sick.

*A recent survey of over 177 countries found that least 145 provide paid sick days for short- or long-term illnesses, with 136 providing a week or more annually. More than 81 countries provide sickness benefits for at least 26 weeks or until recovery.

Current Landscape
Minimum standards of paid sick days have been passed in one state and in three cities. In Spring 2011, Connecticut became the first state in the nation to pass a paid sick days bill. Among cities, San Francisco’s paid sick leave ordinance has been in place the longest, since February 2007. Milwaukee and Washington, DC approved minimum standards for paid sick leave in 2008, although implementation in Milwaukee was delayed by a court injunction ( lifted in March 2011), and has been pre-empted by the Wisconsin legislature and governor. Philadelphia city council passed a sick leave ordinance in 2011, but it was vetoed by the mayor. In September 2011, Seattle became the latest city win a paid sick days ordinance.

There are campaigns under way in a number of other cities and states. The paid sick days project of the National Partnership for Women and Families does a nice job of tracking current laws and campaigns.

FAQ
Will the legislation of paid sick leave hurt business and slow hiring?

No. While opponents often float the charge that such laws are “bad for business,” the direct costs are minimal: one survey of the impact of the new CT law found that employers would face, on average, a cost equal to only two-tenths of one percent of their gross sales. And investigations of the impact of the San Francisco ordinance not only found no disadvantage to local employers, but that fully two-thirds of those employers supported the law.

Learn More
The Institute on Women’s Policy Research, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and A Better Balance, all offer current research, resources, and updates on current laws and campaigns. Family Values @ Work, a network of state and national policy groups is also an excellent gateway for state-level campaigns. The Economic Policy Institute has helped to track the real costs and benefits of sick leave legislation—see especially the June 2011 report The Need for Paid Sick Days. For a primer on the public health argument, see The Restaurant Opportunities Center report Serving While Sick (2010). Among state policy groups, Washington’s Economic Opportunity Institute has taken the lead on this issue—both in Washington State and in tracking progress elsewhere.

Recent Research Highlights

Added August 22, 2011 Source: COWS
Issue: Health Care, Paid Sick Leave
State: Wisconsin

Added November 18, 2011 Source: Economic Opportunity Institute
Issue: Paid Sick Leave
State: Washington

Paid Sick Leave (May 2011)