{"id":88482,"date":"2023-01-05T14:57:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T18:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=88482"},"modified":"2023-01-26T16:42:29","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T20:42:29","slug":"us-sick-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/us-sick-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Sick Leave Policy\u2014Why Americans Go to Work Sick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How do sick days work in the U.S.? Why doesn’t the U.S. have paid sick leave?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. is the only nation among 22 top-wealth countries that doesn\u2019t require employers to provide workers paid sick leave. Experts agree on the benefits of paid sick days but disagree about who should fund them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to learn more about the current state of the U.S. sick leave policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The State of U.S. Sick Leave<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On December 1, Congress approved a deal to avert a national rail strike and potential economic crisis that won rail workers a pay increase<\/a>, flexibility to schedule doctor\u2019s appointments, and one paid personal day. Notably absent from the agreement: seven days of paid sick leave for which the rail union had fought tooth and nail. For many, this has raised the question: why doesn\u2019t the U.S. sick leave policy provide any requirements for paid sick days when most other developed nations do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A policy offering paid sick days allows workers to stay home when they\u2019re unwell and get a paycheck as they recuperate. Supporters of the policy say it increases worker productivity<\/a>, prevents the transmission of illnesses at work<\/a>, and allows people to address their health needs with less financial burden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But paid sick leave\u2014which most advanced economies in the world require employers to provide<\/a>\u2014has been a decades-long point of contention in the U.S., where the policy is scattershot and largely state-determined<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article will examine the current status of paid sick leave in the U.S., how we got here, and why there\u2019s resistance to the policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cHaves” and “Have Nots\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One in four U.S. workers\u2014more than 33 million Americans\u2014don\u2019t have paid sick leave<\/a>, and the disparities between the \u201chaves” and \u201chave nots\u201d are stark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistic\u2019s 2019 National Compensation Survey found that while the highest income earners in the U.S. had nearly universal access to paid sick leave, this was not the case for Americans at the lowest end of the economic bracket: Just 31% of workers earning $10.80 an hour had the benefit, compared with 92% of workers, who made more than $32.21<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How We Got Here<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The national rail contract dispute brought the conversation about paid sick leave in the U.S. to the fore in recent months, but it\u2019s been a hot topic since the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. As the highly transmissible, deadly virus shut down economies worldwide, essential workers continued to show up to work even while sick because, experts say, they couldn\u2019t afford to take time off<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocates say that even before the pandemic, millions of Americans without paid sick leave went to work sick and contagious every day<\/a>\u2014a practice that spreads transmissible illnesses more rapidly and broadly\u2014because they couldn\u2019t afford to lose a day of income\u00ad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n