Rich People Have Paid Sick Days. Poor People Do Not.

[xchrom]

http://www.epi.org/publication/rich-people-have-paid-sick-days-poor-people-do-not/

In the State of the Union address, President Obama proposed a right to earned paid sick leave for all workers in this country, and directed federal agencies to offer paid family leave to their workers. Family economic security is at risk when workers do not have access to paid leave. Currently, more than one-third of all workers—39 percent—have no paid sick days. When these workers get sick, they are forced either to go to work, or to stay home without pay and risk losing their job. Access to sick days is also vastly unequal. As shown in the figure below, workers at the top of the scale are nearly four times more likely to have sick days than workers at the bottom of the wage scale. Only one-in-five low-wage workers have paid sick days, compared with 87 percent of high-wage workers. These low-income workers are the ones who can least afford to lose pay when they are sick.



The United States is behind all of our economic peers in the world in terms of providing what should be a bare minimum standard: paid leave when workers are sick, have doctor’s appointments, or need to care for family members.

Opening paid sick days for those who currently don’t have them will mean stronger, healthier families. It will ensure that working parents do not have to choose between staying home with a sick child and going to work, and it will mean that sick employees don’t have to go to work sick, endangering their own health and the health of their colleagues and their customers.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

1. The article is misleading in one way

The President didn't mandate that federal agencies offer paid family leave; he mandated that federal agencies allow workers to get up to six weeks advance leave after the birth of a child. Yes, the time is paid, but the new parent will come back to work six weeks in the hole for sick leave.

And when it's earned at the rate of four hours per pay period, it will take almost 2.5 years to get back to zero, assuming the worker doesn't need to take any other sick leave during that time.

[RazzleCat]

3. Your correct

I am a federal worker. I am currently on LWOP due to the flu. Yes I wish it was paid, but I used up my paid leave with a hospitalization in August/September. With that said, better for all that I get LWOP, then loss of job, or infect all around me with this virus.

One other way if your a federal employee, you can apply for donated leave from your co-workers. If you request is granted (the grant is based on why you need it such an long medical recovery), then an email will be sent and any persons may give some of their leave to you.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

6. I'm a federal employee as well

And I agree, LWOP is better than losing a job. I just know that many people at my agency were thrilled with announcement, until they found out that it meant going in the hole on sick leave.

Currently, our agency offers leave bank members the opportunity to get enough paid leave through the leave bank to fill out to six weeks post-partum, once all sick and annual leave is used. Non-leave bank members can request donations for the same.

But HR put out a statement this week saying that they are re-looking that policy. Their take seems to be that now that advanced leave is available for the full six weeks, there is no longer a need to utilize leave bank or donations. If this policy changes, it will be a definite negative for our employees.

[Vinca]

2. This is the silliest denial of benefits ever - as if germs can tell the rich from the poor.

I hope we don't have to wait for a new disease - "Millionaire's Plague" - before food prep people and home health care workers, among others, get to stay home in bed when they're sick.

[aikoaiko]

4. What would be a top 10% wage job that doesn't have sick days?

I'm surprised its even as low as 87%.

[underpants]

5. I am in no way rich but I have paid sick leave

8 days of sick
4 days of family/personal
16 hours civil/work - jury duty, field trips with my daughter's class etc., interviews within the organization
9 holidays - we give up 5 holidays to get basically 2 weeks off at the holidays
8 hours of vacation per month so that is another 12 days off

Yes I work in the USA

It turns out I beat out 295 other applicants for this job a year and a half ago.

[Alkene]

7. At the University of Washington, Seattle, if you use up your sick leave

you will be punished. Just sayin', just because you have it doesn't mean that you can actually use it.

I used up my sick leave from the UW in order to care for my wife as she was dying, then after she passed HR wrote up a report "statistically demonstrating" that I had established a pattern of using my sick leave to extend weekends and holidays, justifying denial of any further sick leave benefits.

[uppityperson]

9. That is terrible. I worked a place where we acquired 1 sick day a month, but if you used any

more often than once every 3 month you were written up and could be fired or at minimum any raise denied (10 cents a year). So if you got sick, they wanted you to take more than 1 day off at a time and you could not get sick more often than every 3 months plus a day.

[Jester Messiah]

8. It's messed up...

I guess I've just had it too good for too long, but I assumed that any full-time position already came with sick days by virtue of some law or another. I was honestly shocked to hear otherwise. It's a situation that needs to be remedied post-haste!