Lack of paid sick leave for almost half of all working Americans is a potential public health crisis

[dajoki]

50% of Americans Lack Sick Leave
by Leigh Graham
Published September 29, 2009 @ 03:20PM PT
http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/50_of_americans_lack_sick_leave

With a vaccine for the H1N1 virus still some time away, the lack of paid sick leave for almost half of all working Americans in the private sector is a potential public health crisis. http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/28/smallbusiness/swine_flu_vs_sick_leave/?postversion=2009092803 Not only are these working adults likely to show up at work with potential infectious symptoms - or fear losing their job - they are likely to send sick kids to school for the same reason. Why is this on the Poverty blog?

Nationwide, the same trend holds: The proportions of workers without paid leave are higher in lower-wage industries, including food service, nursing care, and retail workers.

These are the folks we interact with on a regular basis - the person handing you your coffee or your morning bagel; the woman coming to care for your already infirm grandmother in her home.

I'm so sick of the argument that basic government regulation that protects public health and minimizes worker exploitation is bad for small business. I paraphrase a good corporate friend on Facebook - if you can't afford to pay your workers a living wage or benefits, you have a bad business model. And I'll add: as anti-poverty and economic justice advocates, we'd be happy to work with you to fight for a more equitable business climate for your small company.

15 states and cities are currently working on paid sick leave bills. http://paidsickdays.nationalpartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=psd_toolkit_map_states Check them out and find out how you can support on-going campaigns. http://paidsickdays.nationalpartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=psd_action

[xchrom]

1. indeed -- there isn't paid sick leave where i work --

and i hate cold and flu season there as a result.

[Echo In Light]

2. K&R

[Captain Hilts]

3. Yes! And many are caregivers!!! It's a public problem.

FDR: Yes, it is, isn't it, old girl?
ER: Indeed it is...

[hamsterjill]

4. Exactly!

People are forced to come to work when they are sick, thus infecting their coworkers, and so on, and so on...

At what point at the "ones in charge" going to see that this system is NOT working!!!!

[Echo In Light]

10. And forced to "make up" 'lost' hrs while still recovering when they should be home instead

Fortunately we do have PTO where I work, but for some Dept's there's stricter policies for, say, if an employee is out of PTO, which is common since we don't accrue very much, and they miss Tue/Wed due to illness, may be expected to work 'over' Thur/Fri to 'make up' those 'lost' hrs, which is bullshit when people are still laid up w/flu or whatever.

[hamsterjill]

14. Good point!

n/t

[Romulox]

5. If workers want more sick time, they need to "get out there and compete!"

Right? Or does that only apply to manufacturing workers? :shrug:

[dajoki]

8. I think competition...

is the problem. If a company has one sick worker who cannot make it to work and another one who will show up despite their illness, who do you think will be fired. Workers should stick together and support the Employee Free Choice Act, but that's for another post.

[Romulox]

9. Tell that to Tim Geithner or Larry Summers.

:shrug:

[madrchsod]

6. well duh....we are expected to go to work sick.

we are expected to sacrifice everything for our employer.

if my daughter become ill she will have to go to work because she does`t have any vacation days left and she has two "occurrences". she has to work sick and infect others or lose her job.

[tammywammy]

7. I just got a job with sick leave

I was sick and my boss sent me home about a month ago. When I went to put in my time for the week, I just classified it as sick and that's it. It's not something you even accrue or have a set amount of sick days, if you're sick you're sick.

At other jobs, if I was sick I had to use my vacation hours or just not get paid. Not here, the deputy program manager just said "it's more important that you go home and get better than getting everyone sick." Oh and there's not any guilt trips about being out sick either. Today for instance the deputy pgrm mgr didn't show up this morning. Quite strange, I mean he's always called in if he was running late or whatnot, so I called his house. His lovely wife answered the phone and I just said I was checking to see if he was okay, and she said that she thought he had the flu, running a temp and was back in bed. I just said that I hope he feels better, and went and let the pgrm mgr know that so-and-so was gonna be out sick all day. He just said "that's fine."

I mean at the car dealership, heaven forbid you ever get sick. Everyone would bitch and moan about how they had to do YOUR work while you were out. I scratched my eye once and had a freaking eye patch on and I STILL went to work for a bit, b/c I didn't want to hear the damn bitching afterward AND I had to use my vacation hrs to make up the difference.

[liberalhistorian]

11. Gee, ya think? And in other

news, the sun rose this morning and will set later in the evening with the moon then taking over.

Note to OP: this is not against you, it's against those who promote these kinds of policies, or who have no problem allowing businesses to do whatever they want and treat workers however they want, and yet turn around and act surprised and panicked when it comes around to bite them in the ass like this.

[dajoki]

15. And that is why I posted it n/t

[leftstreet]

12. K&R

[aikoaiko]

13. I have months of sick pay accrued that I will never use because I work is on such a tight schedule

Sad, really.