On March 25, 2010, City Council Member Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) introduced legislation guaranteeing all workers a minimum number of paid sick days. The bill allows employees to earn up to 9 paid sick days. Employees in small businesses could earn up to 5 days. Currently the legislation has 34 co-sponsors.

Q:  Why shouldn’t it be up to the individual employer, like other benefits?

A:  Lack of paid sick days poses serious public health risks.  Like making sure restaurants meet health code standards, or requiring children to get immunized before they enter school, this is something that affects all of us. 

Many of the workers least likely to have paid sick days are in jobs like food handling, child care, and care of the elderly, where the risks of a sick worker spreading illness to others are the most serious.  Surveys have found that 84% of New York City restaurant workers are without paid sick days.

Q:  Are there any studies that show that having paid sick days matters?

A:  A growing body of research evidence points to a significant impact on health and health care costs:

• Workers without paid sick days are more likely to go into work sick where they can spread infectious disease and jeopardize their own health.
• Parents with paid sick days are five times more likely to be able to care for sick children at home than similar parents who do not have paid sick days.
• Paid sick days influence the ability of working New Yorkers to care for their aging parents. Elderly individuals live longer and have better health outcomes with family support.
• Among workers with health insurance, those without paid sick days were about 20% more likely to use the emergency room each year.

Q:  But won’t this increase labor costs? Especially now, in an economic downturn, won’t this hurt small businesses?

A:  Businesses can afford it. If there is a law requiring all employers to provide employee earned paid sick days, it will level the playing field so that good employers who already provide paid sick days are no longer at a disadvantage.

While it costs employers something to provide paid sick days, studies show it ends up saving them more in the long run. A similar law has been in effect in San Francisco since 2007 and has not hurt businesses there. 5 The bottom line is that a paid sick days law is good for business.

The average cost to small businesses will be only $5.37 per worker a week. 6 Weigh that against the benefits:

1. Fewer workers coming in sick means they don't spread illness to other workers, so overall absenteeism may even go down
2. Productivity goes up, accidents and mistakes go down
3. Turnover will go down because workers will be able to handle health emergencies without having to quit or risk being fired.

Q:  Is there public support for paid sick days?

A:  YES! The public overwhelmingly supports passing an employee earned paid sick leave law.

Three out of four New Yorkers favor a law requiring employers to give workers paid sick days, even when they are presented with all the opposing arguments. 6

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1 Estimates by Community Service Society of New York (CSS) and Vicky Lovell, IWPR based on The Unheard Third 2009, Survey of New York City residents by Community Service Society of New York (CSS)

2 A Health Impact Assessment of the Healthy Families Act of 2009, Summary of Findings, June 11, 2009, (HIA) prepared by Human Impact Partners.

3 “Behind the Kitchen Door:  Pervasive Inequality in New York City’s Thriving Restaurant Industry, Executive Summary,” by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) and the New York City Restaurant Industry Coalition, January 25, 2005.   An analysis of national US Labor Department data by the IWPR found a similar percent nationally; they report that 15% of workers in food preparation and services receive paid sick days. (See Health Impact Assessment, June 2009).

4 The research is summarized in the Health Impact Assessment, June 2009 and Contagion Nation:  A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries by Jody Heymann, Hye Jin Rho, et. al., May 2009.

5 Office of the Legislative Analyst, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, “Implementation Status of the Paid Sick Leave Ordinance” (BOS File No. 018-09 (August 24, 2009).

6 TKevin Miller and Claudia Williams, “Valuing Good Health in New York City: The Costs and Benefits of the Paid Sick Time Act,” Institute for Women’s Policy Research, October, 2009..

7 The Unheard Third 2007, CSS.