A national paid leave policy is urgently needed to address the new coronavirus outbreak and to help protect the health and safety of the population in the future. The increasing spread of the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, is an urgent issue for the health and economic well-being of workers, families, and communities—with more infections and deaths reported in the United States every day.
The coronavirus’ high transmission rate and incubation period of up to 14 days may necessitate people self-quarantining at home for extended periods of time if they are sick with or exposed to the coronavirus in order to curb the spread of the infection; they may also be forced to stay home if their workplace or child’s school or child care provider closes because the outbreak worsens. This places workers in an impossible bind if they do not have access to paid leave. An estimated 32.5 million individuals—or 27 percent of private sector workers—in the United States lack access to a single paid sick day to recover from an illness such as COVID-19 or to care for a sick family member without losing their job or their paycheck. Low-income and service-sector workers—who are disproportionately women—and Latinx workers are the least likely to have access to paid sick leave.
Lack of paid sick leave is a public health risk
There are significant public health risks associated with a lack of paid sick leave, especially during pandemics such as COVID-19, which are becoming increasingly common. Millions of workers without access to paid sick days report to work when they are sick and may be contagious because they cannot afford to miss work and lose pay. A survey of workers found that those without paid sick leave were 1.5 times more likely to go to work when they have a contagious illness than workers with the benefit. A study of workers who need sick leave but did not or could not take it found that up to an estimated 3 million workers go to work sick every week, most of whom are low-wage workers, mothers with young children, or both. When workers go to work sick, contagious illnesses spread more quickly and widely. Researchers estimate that an additional 5 million people contracted the H1N1 virus during the 2009 pandemic because of a lack of workplace policies such as paid sick leave. The continued lack of a federal law that would provide millions of workers with access to paid sick leave means that the coronavirus outbreak will likely have a similar or even more severe infection rate. Continue reading.