Paid Sick Days Can Help Contain Health Care Costs. 2010. Kevin Miller, Ph.D. Institute for Women Policy and Research
A look at how paid sick days can help lower health care costs in the United States.
Paid Sick Leave Does Not Harm Employment. 2010. John Petro, Urban Policy Analyst.
Drum Major Institute for Public Policy
A close analysis of the latest employment data in San Francisco reveals that, despite the recession, the labor market there is performing better than in neighboring counties that do not have a paid sick leave law.
Policy Briefing Series: Opportunities for Policy Leadership on Paid Sick Days. 2007. Sloan Work and Family Research Network
The Policy Briefing Series (PBS) provides state legislators with information on implications of work-family policies and their effects on their constituents. The PBS on Paid Sick Days highlights what steps have been taken at the local, state, and national levels to guarantee paid sick days for workers.
The Work, Family, and Equity Index: Where Does the United States Measure Up? 2007. Jody Heymann, et al. Harvard School of Public Health, Project on Global Working Families, Boston, MA.
The Work, Family, and Equity Index is a cross-national comparison of work and family policies in 177 countries, with emphasis on how the U.S. compares to other nations. The Index concludes that the U.S. lags significantly behind other countries in its lack of access to paid sick days and paid family leave for workers.
No Time to be Sick: Why Everyone Suffers when Workers Don’t Have Paid Sick Leave. 2004. Vicky Lovell, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Washington, DC.
Lovell’s groundbreaking research investigates the availability of paid sick days in the U.S. by industry and demographic categories. Lovell finds that nearly half of all private-sector workers do not have a single paid sick day, and examines the ramifications for workers, families, businesses, and communities.
Getting Time Off: Access to Leave Among Working Parents. 2004, Katherin Ross Phillips, Urban Institute, Washington, DC.
Phillips’s report examines whether access to paid leave, including paid sick days, differs by socioeconomic status and finds that low-income workers have less access to all forms of leave. Phillips asserts that increasing access to paid leave would help provide economic security for many working parents.
Responsive Workplaces: The Business Case For Employment That Values Fairness and Families. 2007, Jodie Levin-Epstein, Center for Law and Social Policy.
The
Responsive Workplaces issue brief frames work/life business practices not only as good social policy, but good business sense. This report provides examples of how businesses benefit from better workplace standards, through increased worker retention, higher productivity, and a healthier work environment.
Valuing Good Health: An Estimate of Costs and Savings for the Healthy Families Act. 2005. Vicky Lovell. Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Washington, DC.
Valuing Good Health presents a comprehensive estimate of the costs and savings associated with the Healthy Families Act, a federal bill that guarantees seven paid sick days per year to full-time workers. The report finds that if workers were provided just seven paid sick days per year, our national economy would experience a net savings of approximately $8 billion per year.
Here’s a Tip…When Restaurant and Hotel Workers Don’t Have Paid Sick Days, It Hurts Us All. 2007, Jodie Levin-Epstein, Center for Law and Social Policy, Washington, DC.
Levin-Epstein’s report examines the public health risks associated with the lack of paid sick days among low-wage accommodation and food industry workers. She argues that providing paid sick days for workers in all sectors would not only benefit workers’ health and their families, but public health, as well.
