Coronavirus sick time: Congress should do the job if Florida won’t

A lot of employers in Florida refuse to pay employees when they’re out sick. And the state government isn’t about to force employers to offer paid sick time. Legislators even passed a law prohibiting cities or counties from making employers do right by their employees.

Our last hope rests with Congress, where members of the House and Senate have introduced a bill intended to force employers to offer ailing employees paid time off during public health emergencies.

The issue has rarely been more relevant than it is today.

Hundreds of people have been infected with the coronavirus in the United States, and many more are expected to fall ill before this epidemic runs its course.

An essential component for limiting the spread is for people experiencing respiratory symptoms and fever to stay home from work.

As we noted in an editorial last week, that’s a no-win decision for the many Floridians who work in the service industry and don’t get paid for taking sick time.

At the end of last year Florida had nearly 1.3 million people working in the leisure and hospitality industries, nearly 300,000 of those in Central Florida, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency also estimates that just 58% of private-sector service workers nationwide get paid time off, compared with about 75% of the workforce as a whole.

Workers in the service industry may have no savings to fall back on during hard times. How can we expect them to stay away from their jobs when the stakes are so high, especially if they’re not sure whether they have the coronavirus or some other illness with similar symptoms?

Two members of Congress — Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut — have proposed a bill that would:

• Require employers to let employees earn up to seven days of paid sick leave.

• During times of a public health emergency (like now), require employers to provide employees with 14 days of paid sick leave.

• Require employers to let employees use sick time when a public health emergency forces the workplace to close, forces school closings or requires quarantine for a family member.

Under this bill, everyone is better off — sick employees who stay home and healthy customers and co-workers who don’t get exposed.

Florida’s senators and representatives in Washington need to get on this bus.

That includes people like Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Donna Shalala, who were quoted in a McClatchy news article saying we should put our faith in the private sector to do the right thing.

“Sometimes things don’t require government action, they require people to be decent human beings and do the right thing,” Rubio said.

We have a different take: Sometimes things do require government action, like an epidemic that threatens the health of the American people and the American economy.

We have no doubt some companies will do the right thing. Orlando-based Darden Restaurants announced Monday it would start paying hourly employees when they’re out sick. And Uber announced over the weekend that it would provide employees with up to 14 days of paid sick leave if they’re quarantined or become ill with the disease.

Other employers think the right thing is confined to their bottom line, and that isn’t going to change.

Congress should consider other measures that would ease the sting, like providing sick-time tax credits to companies during the current outbreak.

This is a time for bold moves to shore up the economy so that job creators don’t go under. That’s what it took to dig out from under the recession when Barack Obama was president.

But government rescue plans shouldn’t focus solely on saving corporate America. Low-income families who labor without decent benefits cannot be left behind.

Let them stay home if they’re sick, but don’t ask them to make the impossible choice between doing that and financial survival.

If Florida won’t save workers from making that choice, Congress must.