Why national paid sick time is key to fighting the coronavirus

“Stay home when you are sick,” recommends the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to prevent contracting the coronavirus.

For many, it’s not that simple. Maybe your employer doesn’t allow sick time, or maybe you can take it but only without pay. For way too many U.S. workers, especially those lower on the income ladder, that is the status quo — increasing not only their risk of getting the virus but everyone else’s, too.

In most countries, this is not an issue, because in most countries there is a national policy in place that guarantees workers paid sick leave. But the United States is one of only three industrialized countries that does not ensure every worker has access to paid time off when they are sick.

Now is the time for everyone to be covered. The latest research shows that during seasonal waves of flu in the United States, mandated sick leave reduces the rate of flu by as much as 40 percent. Yet, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not everyone has access. While 76 percent of U.S. workers have some access to paid sick days, among the lowest-income workers, only three out of 10 have access to paid sick leave.

In the service industry, only 61 percent of workers have some paid sick time. As Claire Cain Miller, Sarah Kliff, and Margot Sanger-Katz write in The New York Times, “Service industry workers, like those in restaurants, retail, child care and the gig economy, are much less likely to have paid sick days, the ability to work remotely, or employer-provided health insurance.”

Nevermind that it’s these same workers whose job it is to interact with the public — our food, goods, and our children. These are the last people we want going to work sick in a potential pandemic. Yet without access to paid sick days, many can’t afford not to go to work. Customers will stay away from shops and restaurants if they perceive a significant risk of contracting COVID-19, the scientific name for the new coronavirus, from those serving them. Imagine the economic impact, not only for those individual businesses, but for the macroeconomy. Small businesses in China and Italy — and my home state of Washington — are already feeling the pinch. It’s only a matter of time before many here suffer as well.

More than a decade ago, H1N1 (also known as “swine flu”) created a pandemic in the United States. As concerns were rising about the spread of the swine flu, I wrote the following: “We keep hearing that if people don’t feel well, they shouldn’t go out and potentially give others H1N1 … But given the reality of the U.S. workplace, this is a fairly meaningless recommendation.”

The lack of paid sick days at that time meant that workers went to work sick, and at least one study suggests that there may have been millions more cases of “flu-like symptoms” (though not all H1N1) as a result.

Unfortunately, not enough has changed since then.

Beyond the obvious public health and broad economic threats, the disproportionate lack of paid sick days for low-income workers is a contributor to income inequality. And yet, in a pandemic we are essentially asking low-income workers to double down on their inequality by forgoing several days’ pay so the rest of us can stay well.

Though we don’t yet have national paid sick leave, more than 30 jurisdictions — including 10 states and the District of Columbia — have taken on the responsibility of mandating it for their workers. The existence of these statutes means that now, among private-sector workers, about two-thirds now have access to paid sick time. These laws also provide a basis for research on the impact of paid leave on workers, businesses, and the economy.

That research tells us there is growing evidence that mandatory paid sick leave works. In a 2019 working paper, Catherine Maclean of Temple University, Stefan Pichler of ETH Zurich, and Nicolas R. Ziebarth of Cornell University report that:

• Sick pay coverage increases on average by 9 percent in the first 4 years after a new law is implemented (but plateaus subsequently, perhaps because of noncompliance by employers or lack of knowledge among employees).
• Newly covered employees take, on average two additional sick days during the first three months of a calendar year.
• The total cost of sick leave for employers increases by almost 10 percent, or 23 cents per hour.
• Affected employers do not curtail non-mandated benefits to respond to increased costs.

In addition, the authors develop a welfare model that suggests a certain number of days of paid sick leave helps businesses to maximize profits because productivity declines when employees work sick.

And based on research partially funded by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Daniel Schneider finds that Washington state’s paid sick-leave requirement, which took effect in January 2018, expanded workers’ access to paid sick leave by 28 percentage points while reducing the share of workers who reported working while sick by 8 percentage points.

Let me be clear: Paid sick leave is not the only answer to protecting our nation from the new coronavirus. Public health measures and scientific research leading to a vaccine and treatment are paramount to stopping this epidemic. But it is dangerous, unfair, and downright inhumane to ask workers uncovered by paid leave to choose between losing their livelihood or losing their health.

We have the power to help prevent this, slow the spread of the coronavirus, and protect workers and our country for the future.

First, President Trump should do the same thing President Obama did in 2009 — urge employers to allow their workers to take as many sick days as necessary, regardless of their local law or usual business practice.

Second, along with The Hamilton Project, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth published Recession Ready, a book filled with ideas for how policymakers can prepare for the next recession. In one chapter, Equitable Growth Director of Macroeconomic Policy Claudia Sahm showed how Congress could automate targeted payments to individuals and businesses hit hard by a downturn in part to help stave off or recover from a recession. In a downturn resulting from a pandemic, this policy could especially useful to mitigate both the individual and larger economic harm caused by the coronavirus.

Finally, Congress needs to enact a law to ensure that every worker has the right to earn paid sick days. In 2009, I wrote, “A good place to start is to move ahead on the debate over the Healthy Families Act.” That is still true. Sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), this bill would guarantee workers as many as seven paid sick days a year to deal with their illness or care for a sick family member.

In addition, Rep. DeLauro and Sen. Murray have just introduced a new bill that would immediately require employers to provide workers with 14 days of paid sick leave to be used during a public health emergency, including the current crisis.

With a possible pandemic on our hands and with the growing evidence for the economic and social benefits of mandatory paid leave, the case for both bills is stronger than ever.

Heather Boushey is President and CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and the author of the book Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It.