People of Faith CT

by Joe Dinkin
Working Families Party
Stamford Advocate Op-Ed
January 27, 2009

Everyone gets sick. But for far too many employees who don’t get paid sick days, losing a day’s pay — or even a job — is as easy as catching a cold. The alternative isn’t much better, as people go to work sick and spread illness to co-workers and the public. That’s why enacting paid sick days as a basic workplace standard is such an important public health reform — and even more so in tough economic times like these.

When employees have to go to work sick, it isn’t healthy for anyone. Of the estimated 650,000 Connecticut workers who don’t get a single sick day all year long, the biggest groups are in the food service, retail and health care sectors — all employees who have to interact with the public. That means that hundreds of thousands of people whom we trust to cook and prepare our food, sell us our groceries, look after our kids and care for the elderly could end up coming to work sick.

The Centers for Disease Control recommends that you stay home if you’re sick. But some employees don’t have that choice, and we all suffer the consequences. Last spring, it was front-page news when 30 University of Connecticut students fell violently ill with a “norovirus” (a bug that causes vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea) after a banquet at a restaurant in Manchester because of one sick food preparer. Infectious illness can be particularly harmful in places like schools and nursing homes, where vulnerable populations are in close contact. The fact that school cafeteria works and nursing home aides so often lack paid sick days defies common sense.

A basic workplace standard for paid sick days would also have another impact on our health care system: savings. Employees without paid sick days often can’t afford to take the day off for a doctor visit, for themselves or for their children. They’re more likely to depend on expensive emergency-room treatment, and are less likely to receive the kind of preventive care that keeps people healthier and keeps down costs in the long-term. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; people without paid sick days often don’t get that ounce of prevention, and we all pay for the pound of cure.

Opponents of a paid sick days measure will claim it’s too expensive for businesses. This view is penny-wise but pound-foolish. It’s an argument contradicted by serious analysis and by real life experience. Sick workers are less productive, and they further reduce productivity by spreading illness to co-workers. Recent studies show most businesses actually stand to benefit from providing paid sick days because of increased productivity and reduced turnover. In San Francisco, a guarantee of paid sick days has been the law for two years, and it has not impacted employers’ bottom lines. One of the legislation’s biggest opponents, Kevin Westlye, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, has conceded to the San Francisco Chronicle this about the new paid sick days law: “It hasn’t been a big issue.”

In these tough economic times, missing a day’s pay to take a kid to the doctor could mean missing a mortgage payment or falling deeper into debt. No one should have to choose between their health and their livelihood. Just a handful of paid sick days a year could provide a much-needed measure of economic security for families struggling with higher costs and stagnant incomes.

Allowing workers to earn paid sick days isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s a smart way to improve the public health, to reduce the spread of illness at work and to protect our state’s embattled working families.

——
Joe Dinkin is communications director at Connecticut Working Families, part of the EverybodyBenefits.org coalition for paid sick days.