Paid Sick Leave and Absenteeism: The First Evidence from the U.S.

Abstract

Using a balanced sample of workers from the NHIS, we estimate of the impact of paid sick leave (PSL) insurance on absenteeism in the United States. PSL increases absenteeism by 1.2 days per year, a large effect given the typical benefit duration. Consistent with moral hazard, the effects are concentrated in moderate sick days, not severe ones. In addition, we merge the NHIS with Google Flu Trends. Severe influenza outbreaks lead workers to exhaust sick days, consequently leading to a replacement rate of zero for additional absences. Consistent with a lower replacement rate, worker absenteeism is reduced on the margin. We thank Glenn Blomquist, Frank Scott, Bill Hoyt, John Garen and Tim Harris for helpful comments. We also thank Matthis Schendstok for research assistance. Any errors are, of course, our own.2

The pros and cons of sick pay schemes: Testing for contagious presenteeism and noncontagious absenteeism behavior

“…However, none of these papers estimates labor supply effects by disease groups or estimates effects on contagious disease rates. In particular, this paper extends the small economic literature on presenteeism at the workplace (Aronsson et al 2000;Chatterji and Tilley 2002;Brown and Sessions 2004;Pauly et al 2008;Barmby and Larguem 2009;Johns 2010;Böckerman and Laukkanen 2010;Markussen et al 2012;Pichler 2015;Hirsch et al 2015;Ahn and Yelowitz 2016). With one exception, none of the empirical studies on presenteeism just cited identifies or intends to identify causal effects of sick leave schemes on presenteeism.…”

Labor Market Effects of U.S. Sick Pay Mandates

“…In almost half of all cases, the reasons indicated for such presenteeism behavior were directly related to a lack of sick leave coverage. Ahn and Yelowitz (2016) confirm that U.S. employees take more sick leave when they have sick leave coverage. And Colla et al (2014) find that, in San Francisco, 73 percent of all firms offered sick pay voluntarily before the mandate in 2006, and that this share had increased to 91 percent by 2009.…”

Paid sick-leave and physical mobility: Evidence from the United States during a pandemic

“…These mandates do not reduce employment, wages, or non-mandated benefits (Maclean, Pichler, and Ziebarth 2020;Pichler and Ziebarth 2020). However, PSL mandates increase workplace absences overall (Maclean, Pichler, and Ziebarth 2020;Callison and Pesko 2020;Schneider 2020;Colla et al 2014;Ahn and Yelowitz 2016), and several studies are able to evaluate heterogeneity in which types of workplace absences increase post-mandate. Stearns and White (2018) find that PSL mandates adopted in Connecticut and Washington, DC increase illness-related work absences, but do not increase work absences for non-illness reasons (e.g., childcare).…”