Legislating Paid Sick Days
Chelsea Lettieri June 2nd, 2008
I had thought that employers were required to offer paid sick days, but this is not the case. A few states across the country have taken the initiative to require that employers offer paid sick days to employees, but nothing is set in stone just yet.
California, Massachusetts, and Ohio are in the process of pushing forward paid sick days legislation forward. Most recently, the California Assembly Labor and Employment Committee passed the Healthy Families, Healthy Workplaces Act (paid sick days legislation) by a vote of 6-2. If passed, California would be the first state to require that employers offer PAID sick days that can be used to recover from illness, care for a sick family member, or recover from domestic violence or sexual assault.
Low wage workers often cannot afford to take unpaid sick days. This may create a public health issue, especially if that worker was your child’s nurse or cafeteria server. Should ill employees be recovering at home rather than be sick in public? Many proponents of the legislation think so.
Opponents argue that offering paid sick days would only benefit employees and would create a burden for employers, especially small businesses. Small business owners feel they do not have the financial means and resources to cover the costs of providing paid sick days. However, a recent study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that if the bill becomes law, employers would save a total of $2.3 million annually, mainly from reduced costs of turnover. The time and resources used for advertising, interviewing, and training new staff members to replace departing workers far outweighs the cost of providing employees with paid sick days.
Do paid sick days make sense to you or not?
http://www.paidsickdaysca.org/
- Leave , Medical Leave , Policy , Sick Leave
[...] not forget that this is a class issue. Low income workers often do not have the benefits to support them in staying home to recover from an illness; therefore they have no choice but to show up at work [...]
You know, I really like the idea of a set number of days off, period. They should be able to be used for vacation, discretionary days, sick days, whatever. I think there is a lot of friction in the work place when some workers come to work and tough it out if they are a little sick while others use max days every year.