If emergency paid sick leave was granted during the pandemic, such guidelines prevented about one COVID-19 case per day per 1,300 workers.
The blatant inequalities in America’s economies and health systems were re-exposed in a new health study that shows the U.S. continues to be one of the few countries in the world with no guaranteed paid sick leave option for many workers – including some who are considered during one Pandemic is essential.
The paper compared the U.S. system, regulated by the U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, to the guidelines for paid sick leave in 193 countries around the world. FMLA offers sick workers job protection, but not paid leave. The study found that the FMLA’s working time and employment requirements are failing workers by creating inequality for women and people of color as they are more likely to engage in activities that are excluded from FMLA protection.
Related: Coping with the Growing Paid Family and Sick Leave Crisis
“Research has shown that paid sick leave reduces the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases and improves prevention and access to treatment for a variety of conditions,” the report said. “However, there are no national guidelines for paid sick leave in the US, and even unpaid FMLA leave – which is often viewed as the basis for new paid leave laws – is often inaccessible.”
The worst of all worlds
The study paints a bleak picture of a regulatory structure that has lagged behind other economies in this area. It indicates that the US is one of only 11 countries in the world without a national, guaranteed, paid sick leave scheme.
The US has the FMLA, but the report highlights the inadequacies of that system.
“The FMLA exempts companies with fewer than 50 employees. No other country in the world has far-reaching restrictions on sick leave due to the size of the employer, ”the report said. “Second, the FMLA requires a minimum working time of 12 months and 1,250 hours for the same employer. Globally, 57% of countries that grant paid sick leave grant their workers at least part of the paid sick leave regardless of their employment history, while more than nine in ten have no explicit minimum hourly requirement. After all, the FMLA is unpaid, which makes the US the only country in the world with a national policy that only allows for unpaid leave. In contrast, 103 countries guarantee employees who have been with the company for a year at least two weeks of paid vacation at a high replacement rate, which ensures both broad access and affordability. “
In an opinion piece published in The Hill, two of the report’s co-authors are blasting the current system because of its poor health outcomes, especially during a pandemic. “We have already seen that the transmission of COVID-19 decreases when paid vacation is available – and when it is not, people go to work sick and the spread accelerates,” wrote Jody Heymann and Aleta Sprague. “The lack of sick leave has also widened the gaps in access to vaccines: Nearly half of unvaccinated Americans – including 55% of unvaccinated black adults and 64% of unvaccinated Latinx adults – say they are concerned about job losses due to side effects . “
The report found that if paid sick leave was granted during the pandemic, such guidelines prevented about one COVID-19 case per day for every 1,300 workers newly given the opportunity to take 10 paid sick days.
The data compiled by the study also found that paid sick leave reduced the rate of other infectious diseases like flu, improved prevention, and reduced emergency rooms. “Paid sick leave also has an impact on employment, an important social determinant of health,” the study says. “Health problems often threaten job security for low-wage and temporary workers, and workers without paid sick leave are more likely to live in poverty and have financial worries.”
Without disadvantaged workers
In the US, many employers offer paid sick leave as a benefit – but many industries and employers do not offer this or only offer it to certain employees. And the unpaid FMLA protection is only available to about half of private and self-employed workers, the report says.
The report found that the FMLA’s minimum work requirement disproportionately affects women who tend to work less than full-time, and that the minimum company size requirements discriminate against minorities. “The minimum firm size requirements ignore large proportions of workers from different races and ethnic groups, but have the most serious implications for Latino men, 45% of whom are excluded by this rule alone,” the report said.
“The exclusion of part-time workers not only affects women and people of color disproportionately, but also exacerbates other inequalities on the labor market,” the authors write. “While some employees voluntarily work part-time, an increasing proportion of part-time employees consists of ‘involuntary’ part-time employees who cannot find full-time employment: a total of over 4.4 million employees are in involuntary part-time employment, which is an average of 23 hours per week. Black and Latinx workers are almost twice as likely to involuntarily work part-time as whites. “
In the Hill article, the authors said that Congress urgently needs to address the shortcomings of the current system. “Ensuring that every worker has access to paid health care long enough to cover cancer and COVID-19 issues for all Americans is essential to addressing inequalities,” they write. “The question is not whether we can afford it – but whether American workers and our economy can bear the consequences if we don’t.”
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