Every Other Worker Has Paid Sick Leave
Only half of all employees in the United States have paid sick leave and that fact can have "unhealthy" repercussions for maintaining a more productive workforce, according to a report issued by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) in Washington, D.C. The report, No Time to be Sick: Why Everyone Suffers When Workers Don't Have Paid Sick Leave (2004), was based on data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Highlights from the report include:
- Nearly 60 million workers go without paid sick leave.
- Only one in three workers have paid sick leave to care for sick children, forcing more than 85 million workers to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for their families.
- Workers in state and local government are twice as likely to have sick leave coverage as private sector workers (89% vs. 45%).
Vicky Lovell, director and author of the report, said: "It is shocking to see that only half of all workers are able to take paid time off for health-related reasons. Paid sick leave is not just an employee benefit; it also serves as an important work support by allowing for a healthy, productive, and efficient workforce."
Lovell noted that sick leave provides workers with an opportunity to regain their health and return to full productivity at work, and can reduce employees' overall absence by preventing contagion among co-workers. When a child or other family member is sick, she also noted, paid leave can also reduce job turnover by preventing the need for workers to take unauthorized time off work, which can lead to job termination.
The study recommended that existing paid sick leave programs be expanded and that a wage replacement be added to unpaid sick leave programs. In addition, the study urged paid sick leave programs to allow for the care of sick family members, as well as making work schedules more flexible so workers can adapt their hours to fit the demands of their health-related caregiving responsibilities.
IWPR is a public policy research organization dedicated to informing and stimulating debate on issues of critical importance to women and their families. The full No Time to be Sick. . .report can be found at www.iwpr.org.
