Sick leave
Sick leave (or paid sick days or sick pay) is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sick leave is intended for health-related purposes. Sick leave can include a mental health day and taking time away from work to go to a scheduled doctor's appointment. Some policies also allow paid sick time to be used to care for sick family members, or to address health and safety needs related to domestic violence or sexual assault. Menstrual leave is another type of time off work for a health-related reason, but it is not always paid.
For the "Weird Al" Yankovic song, see Bad Hair Day.
In most nations, some or all employers are required to pay their employees for some time away from work when they are ill. Most European, many Latin American, a few African and a few Asian countries have legal requirements for paid sick leave for employees. In nations without laws mandating paid sick leave, some employers offer it voluntarily or as the result of a collective bargaining agreement. However, in countries with poorer labor laws such as South Korea, employees are usually forced to use paid vacation time for sick leaves, and the sick leaves exceeding the remaining vacation time are unpaid.
Even where sick leave is normally required for all employees, the business owner may not be considered an employee or have access to paid sick leave, especially in a microbusiness that is operated by the owners.
Paid sick leave can reduce employee turnover, increase productivity, and reduce the spread of disease in the workplace and in the community.[1]
Impact[edit]
Studies show that workers are less likely to take time off for injury or illness when they do not have paid sick leave.[2][3] Workers without paid sick leave are also less likely to obtain preventive medical care, such as cancer screenings and flu shots.[4][5] Workers with paid sick leave are less likely to experience workplace injuries.[6] Paid sick leave can reduce the overall frequency of time off work, as workers are less likely to spread disease to co-workers and the surrounding community.[7][8] Parents who have access to paid sick leave are more likely to take time away from work to care for their sick children.[9] Working parents without paid sick days may feel compelled to send their sick children to school, where the children spread infections to other students and school staff, and additionally experience negative short- and long-term health outcomes themselves.[10][11]
Workers without access to paid sick leave will go to work while sick, which spreads the infections to other workers. Nearly seven in ten U.S. workers (68 percent) report they have gone to work with the stomach flu or other contagious disease.[12] Nearly half reported that they went to work sick because they could not afford to lose the pay.[13] Thirty percent of workers report they contracted the flu from a colleague.[14] According to a 2020 study, requiring paid sick leave in Washington state led to a reduction in the number of workers who reported working while sick.[15]
In 2010, a non-random survey of some New York City employers by the Partnership for New York City estimated that introducing a new paid sick leave mandate, in which employees of small businesses would get a minimum of five days paid sick leave per year and employees of large businesses would get a minimum of nine days paid sick leave per year, would increase total payroll expenses in the city by 0.3%, with the burden largely falling on the fraction of businesses that did not already pay for any sick leave, or that offered sick leave only to long-time employees.[16] The total cost of providing paid sick leave in that high-cost market was estimated to be around 40 or 50 cents per hour worked.[16]
Presenteeism costs the U.S. economy $180 billion annually in lost productivity. For employers, this costs an average of $255 per employee per year and exceeds the cost of absenteeism and medical and disability benefits.[17] For workers in the foodservice industry, one analysis found that foodborne illness outbreak for a chain restaurant – including negative public opinion, which affects other operations in a metropolitan area – can be up to $7 million.[18]
History[edit]
Already in 1500 BCE, at least some of the workers who built the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs received paid sick leave as well as state-supported health care.[77]