It’s got to make you wonder. Why is the United States one of the only industrialized nations without mandated paid sick time for workers? We’re in good company I suppose. Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland don’t have it either. Only about half of all U.S workers in the private sector even get paid sick time, and the numbers are declining. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics only 57 percent of private employers offer workers paid sick time, down from 59 percent in 2004. The reasoning you often hear for not mandating such a benefit is it will cost our businesses and our nation as a whole too much money, and some say it wouldn’t really help workers that much. But if it were the law of the land who would benefit? Yesterday Congress’ Joint Economic Committee released a report assessing the impact of a bill that would require such time off — the Healthy Families Act (S. 1152, introduced by Senator Chris Dodd, and H.R. 2460, introduced by Representative Rosa DeLauro): Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the JEC estimated that: · As a result of the Healthy Families Act, at least 30.3 million additional workers would have access to paid sick leave. · The Healthy Families Act would significantly expand access to paid sick leave for many of America’s most vulnerable workers, including lower-wage workers, women, and minorities. o Almost half of the increased access to paid sick leave (14.7 million additional workers) would accrue to workers in the bottom wage quartile; o Nearly half (13.3 million workers) of the increased access to paid sick leave would accrue to women workers; and, o Almost one-third of the increased access to paid sick leave would accrue to minority workers, including 3.9 million additional African-American workers and 5.6 million additional Latino workers. · The Healthy Families Act would also significantly expand access to paid sick leave for workers in professions with critical public health implications.

Original Source of Paid sick days are a good thing stupid