HUNTSVILLE, Ala. —
The United States is one of the world’s wealthiest countries. But, one of the only ones that doesn’t require all employers to give their workers paid time off when they’re sick.
It’s become an issue that’s on the mind of millions of Americans because of the coronavirus outbreak.
About 70 percent of workers have a fixed amount of sick days per year, and most of those people work low-income jobs. So, they’re less likely to take time off of work-- even in the middle of what the World Health Organization calls a “pandemic”.
Democrats in Congress are trying to pass a new version of a sick leave bill that has been stalled since 2004.
They want to expand the bill to add 14 days of paid sick leave for workers in the case of a public health emergency.
Sick leave is something that the majority of Americans don’t have an abundance of. According to a study by Yahoo Finance, workers in industries that expose them to the most sickness-causing environments, take the least amount of sick days.
People are scared to not show up to work. Especially low-income workers who live paycheck to paycheck. Only 25 percent of food service workers have paid sick leave.
Data from the CDC says one in five service workers reported going to work sick with vomiting or diarrhea.
And it’s an issue in Alabama. An employer is not required by law to pay accrued sick leave. 18 states ban cities from passing their own sick pay policies that have large populations of workers. Alabama is one of those states.
Shining a light on the lack of sick-day options for workers could just save lives. A 2018 study found that cities that required employers to provide paid sick leave, experienced a 40% drop in infection rates just one year later.