Workers Without Paid Sick Leave Less Likely To Take Time Off For Illness Or Injury Compared To Those With Paid Sick Leave

Abstract

Paid sick leave is an important employer-provided benefit that helps people obtain health care for themselves and their dependents. But paid sick leave is not universally available to US workers. Little is known about paid sick leave and its relationship to health behaviors. Contrary to public health goals to reduce the spread of illness, our findings indicate that in 2013 both full- and part-time working adults without paid sick leave were more likely than workers with that benefit to attend work when ill. Those without paid sick leave were 3.0 times more likely to forgo medical care for themselves and 1.6 times more likely to forgo medical care for their family compared to working adults with paid sick leave benefits. Moreover, the lowest-income group of workers without paid sick leave were at the highest risk of delaying and forgoing medical care for themselves and their family members. Policy makers should consider the potential public health implications of their decisions when contemplating guaranteed sick leave benefits.

Protecting health during COVID-19 and beyond: A global examination of paid sick leave design in 193 countries*

“…The data bears out the important role paid sick leave plays in reducing the likelihood of employees going to work when they're sick (DeRigne et al, 2016;Piper et al, 2017;Schneider, 2020). Studies have found that workers who lack paid sick leave are 1.5 times more likely to go to work contagious (Smith & Kim, 2010) and less likely to see a health care provider when sick (Cordoba & Aiello, 2016).…”

Association of Paid Sick Leave Laws With Foodborne Illness Rates

“…4,5 Thus, having PSL has been associated with decreased nosocomial respiratory and gastrointestinal disease outbreaks. 6 Despite this association, 39% of civilian employees in the U.S. do not receive PSL.…”

Local mandate improves equity of paid sick leave coverage: Seattle’s experience

“…Lower-wage, part-time and service sector workers are less likely than average to have paid leave [2]. Access to paid sick leave is associated with using preventative care including routine cancer screenings, [3, 4] parents’ ability to take care of sick children, [5, 6] and worker willingness and financial ability to avoid the workplace when ill [7, 8]. Expanding sick leave may reduce the spread of infectious diseases including influenza [9, 10].…”

“…The lack of job protections and paid time off might limit use of new health coverage among workers hoping to avoid financial penalty for missed work. Hence for low-income populations, access to paid leave might increase the use of ACA-mandated health benefits [8]. …”