New Yorkers Deserve Paid Sick Days

“As a small business owner, I support having paid sick days for my workers. Healthy workers make productive workers, and my business will be much stronger if my employees are able to take the time they need to recuperate from illness without worrying about the effect taking a day off will have on their income. It also will help me create a healthier, germ-free workplace and better serve the customers who come to my deli. This makes good business sense to me.”
--Marco Reinoso, owner of Superstar Deli in Bushwick, Brooklyn

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Paid Sick Days Campaign Overview

Paid sick days should be a basic workplace standard in New York City -- It’s good for public health, good for businesses, and good for families.

The Bill: This bill would guarantee all workers in New York City a minimum number of paid sick days to care for themselves or an immediate family member -- 9 days for workers at large businesses, 5 days for workers at small businesses with less than 20 workers.

Necessity: Nearly 2 million New Yorkers don’t have any paid sick days where they work, including nearly two-thirds of low-wage workers. 1 For them, losing a day’s pay – or even their jobs – is as easy as catching the flu. And when a loved one gets sick, they have to choose between their livelihood and taking care of their families.

Public Health: When people have to go to work sick, it isn’t healthy for anyone. When nearly 2 million New Yorkers don’t have a single paid sick day, it’s a public health catastrophe waiting to happen.

When the Swine Flu outbreak hit, local public health officials, the CDC and even President Obama told us to stay home if we felt sick.

For too many New Yorkers, staying home wasn’t an option – including many who work where germs are most likely to spread. Only 16% of restaurant workers in New York City have paid sick days and more than half report going to work sick.2 When they do, they put the public at risk. Everywhere you go, every day you encounter people who can’t afford to stay home when they’re sick.

Businesses: Paid sick days are good business. Studies show when employees come to work sick, they can slow productivity, 3 infect their co-workers, and are more likely to cause a workplace accident. 4 And, employees with paid sick days are less likely to leave their jobs. 5 San Francisco, where a paid sick days law passed in 2007, has found that the added cost for employers is minimal.

1 Unheard Third, CSS Survey 2008

2 Behind the Kitchen Door, ROC-NY, Jan. 2005.

3 Smith, A. (1989). “A Review of the Effects of Colds and Influenza on Human Performance.” Journal of the Society of Occupational Medicine. 39: 65-68.

4 “Sorock, G.S., et al. (2004). “A case-crossover study of transient risk factors for occupational acute hand injury”. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 61:305-311

5 (Lovell V. (2005). Valuing Good Health: An Estimate of Costs and Savings for the Healthy Families Act. Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research.)