Only 10% of workers who earn the lowest wages have paid sick leave, forcing most to work while ill to pay the bills.
Photo by FG Trade, courtesy iStockphoto
Alejandro Gallardo, a food service worker for a decade in Columbia, Missouri, has never received paid sick leave from his restaurant employers.
“Every flu season is a very hard time to be in the food industry, because we are exposed to the public all the time,” Gallardo told The Nation’s Health. “And it’s like, ‘Oh, God, am I going to get sick now? Am I going to have to miss a day’s pay? Am I going to be stuck working while I’m sick?’”
While 77% of U.S. workers in the private sector had paid sick leave as of March 2022, only 10% of workers who earn the lowest wages had such leave, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As such, many of them are forced to work while ill.
The issue resonated with the public and lawmakers during the COVID-19 pandemic, in part because the disease was so contagious. Congress passed laws to allow paid sick leave for workers with a COVID-19 diagnosis, but the measures expired before the emergency phase of the pandemic ended.
Because the U.S. has no law guaranteeing paid sick leave for workers, a patchwork of states and municipalities have enacted their own laws, each with varying stipulations and conditions. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, eight states have enacted paid sick leave for workers, bringing the total number to 17. Illinois and Minnesota began providing the benefit this year.
Illinois offers a rate of one hour of sick leave for every 40 hours worked, prefaced by a 90-day waiting period after hire. Minnesota offers one hour for every 30 hours to workers with at least 80 hours of work over 12 months.
In several states where paid sick leave failed in legislatures, health advocates have collected signatures from the public to place paid sick leave on the ballot for the November elections.
In Missouri, advocates for Missourians for Health Families and Fair Wages visited every county to collect 210,000 signatures, more than double the amount needed. Organizers submitted the signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office in May.
The measure would bundle sick leave with a minimum wage increase. Full-time employees would earn one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, and Missouri’s minimum wage would be raised from $12.30 to $15 an hour by 2026.
“Part of what makes not having access to paid sick leave so difficult is having a wage that forces you to live paycheck to paycheck,” Richard Von Glahn, campaign manager of Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, told The Nation’s Health. “Full-time minimum wage workers in Missouri earn less than $500 a week. So you’re barely scraping by, and then illness strikes and you don’t have access to paid sick leave. That’s when that dynamic happens of, ‘Well, what do I do now?’”
More than 400 small businesses have endorsed the initiative, Von Glahn said.
“They know that by investing in employees, they improve productivity, morale and longevity of those employees staying with the company,” said Von Glahn, who expressed confidence the measure will be on the ballot and Missourians will pass it.
In Nebraska, Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans collected 90,000 signatures and organizers planned to submit them to the Secretary of State’s Office in July. Confirmation that the measure is on the November ballot is expected by early September, said Jo Giles, executive director of the Women’s Fund of Omaha, a sponsor of the campaign.
Over half of full-time food-service, construction, transportation and warehouse workers in the state have no paid sick leave, according to a Nebraska Benefits report released in 2021. Over 35% of all full-time employees in the state have no paid sick leave.
The ballot initiative would enable full-time employees to earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The measure also offers a safeguard so that workers using paid sick leave do not face employer retaliation.
“We look forward to continuing to support hardworking Nebraskans by ensuring everyone has the ability to earn and use paid sick leave,” Giles told The Nation’s Health. “These are investments in our state’s economy, in our communities and in working families.”
Visit www.mohealthyfamilies.org and www.paidsickleavefornebraskans.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
