New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Expanded paid sick leave benefits everyone
We're three years into a global health pandemic and many workers — especially women — are still expected to go to work sick. It doesn't have to be this way.
Connecticut made history as the first state to implement a statewide paid sick days requirement just over 10 years ago. Though groundbreaking at the time, too many people were and still are excluded from qualifying for employer-provided paid sick days. As we navigate the continued impacts of COVID-19, it's more urgent than ever that we pass and implement comprehensive paid sick days legislation to ensure all workers have access to the time off they need.
Connecticut's current law guarantees 40 hours, or five days, of guaranteed paid sick time off with a number of significant stipulations. Workers only qualify for paid sick days if: they work for an employer with 50-plus employees in certain industries; they meet the lengthy definition of a “service worker” under the law; they've “earned” their paid sick leave by working 680 hours; or if they are taking a day to care for a family member defined as an immediate relation such as a husband, wife or child.
These stipulations exclude new and part-time workers; workers with multiple jobs, in certain industries, or with smaller employers; and workers who need to care for extended or chosen family members. This means about half of the workforce is excluded from the current law. These limitations have serious implications across gender lines, as well as lines of race and class. Black and Hispanic women and men, low-wage workers, and many front-line workers are least likely to have access to paid sick days.
Women make up nearly half of the labor force, and most often also bear the responsibility for meeting their children's health needs, which often require taking time off from work for scheduling and going to doctors appointments, and managing their childrens' follow-up care and symptoms. There are a multitude of working mothers who are not eligible to take sick days to care for their children. At times, prioritizing the health of their sons and daughters means jeopardizing their employment.
For those who do qualify for paid sick days, the guaranteed 40 hours is wholly inadequate, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only highlighted the harm those inadequacies can cause. For individuals taking precautions, five days off is not enough when you're being asked to quarantine for 10 days to 14 days. For those who have gotten sick, it has taken well over five days for many to recover from this new and hugely variable disease.
Throughout this pandemic, including right now, many of the people who have kept our country running have worked while sick because they've had no alternative. Others have returned to work still ill because they did not have enough paid time off to continue their recovery at home. There is no way to know how many COVID-related deaths and illnesses could have been prevented if all workers had access to comprehensive paid sick leave. No one should have to choose between financial stability and the well-being of themselves and others. Everyone deserves the time to recover from being sick.
And better protecting workers' health also promotes a healthy economy. Other states and cities that have implemented or expanded paid sick days have already begun to see the economic benefits of a comprehensive sick days program. Nearly two years after New York implemented its paid sick days law, the number of businesses grew, consumer prices fell, labor participation was the highest on record, and unemployment was at its lowest in six years.
We encourage you to reach out to your local legislators and tell them that we need a paid sick days law that (1) covers all workers regardless of employer size, job title or industry, (2) eliminates the waiting period to use leave, (3) includes all types of family structures and relationships, just like our state's groundbreaking paid family and medical leave law, and (4) provides an additional 10 days, or 80 hours, of paid sick leave for reasons specific to COVID-19, including the need to recover from the virus, receive a vaccine or booster shot, or get tested.
In addition to paid sick days, we must encourage our decisionmakers to support all policies that support workers — because paid sick days work best when paired with other programs, such as Connecticut's Paid Family and Medical Leave Program, or COVID emergency leave, to ensure workers, and therefore businesses, are supported and prioritized during difficult times and always.
We are one of the richest states in the richest country in the history of the world. Just as we did as the first state to pass paid sick days legislation over 10 years ago, Connecticut is primed to lead the way again. Let's make history and support our workers and our state with comprehensive paid sick days for all.
Let’s make history and support our workers and our state with comprehensive paid sick days for all.