Everyone Gets Sick. Not Everyone Has Time To Get Better. A Briefing Book on Establishing a National Paid Sick Days Standard Released: April 26, 2010 In October, I got very sick with diverticulitis. My doctor put me on bedrest for two weeks. While I was out, my boss hounded me to come back, but I was way too sick. I told him I would be back as soon as I could. I was not receiving sick pay at all. When I did go back to work early, he fired me and told me he needed someone he could count on. I worked for this man for two years. I was shocked. Sometimes things happen and you get sick. How are you to foresee these things? — Heather, Cedar Crest, New Mexico 2 Everyone Gets Sick. Not Everyone Has Time To Get Better. Nearly two in five private-sector workers (39 percent) don’t have a single paid sick day to recover from common, short-term illnesses. Our nation’s failure to establish a basic paid sick days workplace standard has never been so apparent and it’s costing workers, families and the overall public health. When government officials advised us to stay home and keep our children at home during the 2009 H1N1 “swine” flu pandemic, millions of workers without paid sick days didn’t have that option— they risked losing critical income and even their job. In this economy, those risks came at too high a cost. As a result, our health was jeopardized. Whether it’s the H1N1 flu, or a norovirus stomach-flu outbreak, working people shouldn’t be forced to choose between being responsible employees and conscientious community members. A national workplace standard of paid sick days would allow workers to be both. San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Milwaukee have already passed laws guaranteeing paid sick days to workers in their cities. However, illness—and especially pandemics like the H1N1 flu—doesn’t have geographic boundaries. We need a national paid sick days standard to protect all working people. The Healthy Families Act (H.R. 2460/S. 1152) would enable workers to earn up to seven paid sick days a year to recover from short-term illness, to care for a sick family member and to seek routine medical care. Join us in supporting a national paid sick days standard. 3 I had to work while having bouts of awful bronchitis and walking pneumonia. I got no time off at all even when I was in severe pain, coughing up phlegm or vomiting. Instead I had to act like I wasn’t sick, and keep up the same standards and smiling face…. I couldn’t take unpaid days off from work because I couldn’t afford to do that. I needed the money to pay for things like rent and food. When my quality of work suffered substantially from having to go to work while so sick, I was fired from my job because according to my then-supervisor, I did not create a happy environment for the customers. — Noel, Bellingham, Washington 4 Establishing Paid Sick Days as a Minimum Labor Standard Overview When Workers Don’t Have Paid Sick Days, Contagious Illnesses Spread Through Our Workplaces, Schools and Communities. Example One: A Flu Pandemic Almost 26 million employed people age 18 and older may have been infected with H1N1 flu virus during the peak months of the pandemic, September through November 2009. Government officials urged all workers to stay home from work if they had symptoms, and to keep sick children home from school. But this wasn’t an option for millions of workers. Without job- protected paid sick days, heeding the government’s advice cost these workers their paycheck and their job security. During the height of the H1N1 pandemic, workers with lower rates of access to paid sick days were far more likely than those with higher rates of access to paid sick days to go to work sick and, as a result, the pandemic lasted longer in their workplaces. Overall, 8 million workers went to work sick between September and November 2009 and may have infected up to 7 million of their co- workers. 1 Economic pressures and anxiety surely affected workers’ decisions to go to work ill. When asked what problems they would encounter if they had to stay home for seven to 10 days (the standard course of the H1N1 virus), 44 percent of workers surveyed answered that they or a household member would “lose pay and have money problems.” 2 Example Two: A Stomach Virus Outbreak When a worker at a Chipotle restaurant in Kent, Ohio had no choice but to come to work sick with the norovirus, over 500 people became violently ill. The outbreak cost the Kent community between $130,000 and $300,000. 3 While the Kent Chipotle example is one of the most researched outbreaks in recent years, it is not an isolated incident. Each year, there are approximately 76 million cases of foodborne illness nationwide.4 The Food and Drug Administration guidelines recommend that workers with norovirus -related illnesses work on a restricted basis until 24 hours after symptoms subside. 5 Since most food service establishments don’t offer paid sick time, workers are forced to work sick or take unpaid leave. Workers who have jobs requiring frequent contact with the public and our food are the least likely to have job-protected paid time off. Three in four food service workers lack access to even a single paid sick day. 6 1 Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Sick at Work: Infected Employees in the Workplace During the H1N1 Pandemic , Feb. 2010, www.iwpr.org/pdf/B284sickatwork.pdf. 2 Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, Expanding Access to Paid Sick Leave: The Impact of the Healthy Families Act on America’s Workers , March 2010, http://jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=abf8aca7-6b94-4152-b720-2d8d04b81ed6. 3 Policy Matters Ohio, Outbreak in Ohio: Cost of the 2008 Norovirus Incident in Kent, www.policymattersohio.org/outbreakinohio2008.htm. 4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Foodborne Illness, www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/foodborneinfections_g.htm. 5 Supplement to the 2009 FDA Food Code, www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/RetailFoodProtection/FoodCode/FoodCode2009/ucm189171.htm. 6 Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, Expanding Access to Paid Sick Leave: The Impact of the Healthy Families Act on America’s Workers , March 2010, http://jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=abf8aca7-6b94-4152-b720-2d8d04b81ed6. 5 Without a Basic Workplace Standard of Paid Sick Days, Our Nation’s Workers Can’t Afford To Stay Home Sick. In this economic climate, no one should face the awful choice between caring for their health or keeping their paychecks or jobs. But millions of working people must decide between the two every time they are faced with even the most common illness or when a family member gets sick. Only one in three low-wage workers has paid sick days, which means that they are particularly vulnerable to facing economic hardship when illness strikes. 7 One in six workers report that they or a family member have been fired, disciplined, written up or threatened with being fired for taking time off due to illness or to care for a sick relative.8 The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) does not guarantee workers paid sick days—and neither do any state laws. A national standard guaranteeing workers the ability to earn paid, job-protected sick days would help ensure that workers don’t have to choose between their health and their economic security. Without a Paid Sick Days Standard, Public Policies Fail to Account for the Responsibilities of Millions of Working Caregivers. Children get well faster when a parent cares for them, but in today’s world, two-thirds of children live in homes where both parents or single parents work.9 Yet 53 percent of working mothers and 48 percent of working fathers don’t have paid sick days to care for an ill child.10 As a result, children are forced to go to school sick. Millions of working people provide care for ill and aging family members and need time away from work to do so. A third of workers, both women and men, report they have cared for an older relative in the past year. 11 And 44 million adults over age 18 provide support to older people and adults with disabilities who live in their communities. 12 A paid sick days standard would allow caregivers to be responsible on the job—and at home. 7 Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, Expanding Access to Paid Sick Leave: The Impact of the Healthy Families Act on America’s Workers , March 2010, http://jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=abf8aca7-6b94-4152-b720-2d8d04b81ed6 (data reported is among workers in the lowest wage quartile – those earning $10.50 per hour or less). 8 National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago for the Public Welfare Foundation, Paid Sick Days: A basic labor standard for the 21 st century ” August 2009, www.norc.org/NR/rdonlyres/D1391669-A1EA-4CF4-9B36-5FB1C1B595AA/0/PaidSickDaysReport.pdf. 9 Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey Estimate, Table 4. Families with own children: Employment status of parents by age of youngest child and family type, 2007-08 annual averages (2008 data), www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.t04.htm (NPWF calculation). 10 Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Women and Paid Sick Days: Crucial for Family Well-Being, Feb.