Paid Sick Leave

Why paid sick leave is essential to beating coronavirus — Vox, 2020, 6:32 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMusotiUAs

The United States is the only wealthy country that does not guarantee workers paid sick leave on a national level. As of 2019, about 34 million American workers (24% of the labor force) did not have sick leave offered through their employer or mandated by their state or local government. This causes sick workers to keep on working despite the chance of spreading their disease to others. It may be tempting to blame these individuals, but since the majority are underpaid and live paycheck to paycheck, missing work can have dire consequences.

This video explains the value of paid sick leave policies in the context of the novel coronavirus. It also describes the political history of these policies where corporations (especially Yum! Brands) lobbies governments to void locally-mandated leave policies. All in all, since sick leave is a rather privileged “benefit” in the United States, corporate greed has put all of us at greater risk of infectious diseases, especially during pandemics. If we really wanted to do all we can to flatten the curve of COVID-19 and pandemics of the future, perhaps it is time to reframe sick leave from a benefit to a right.

From the video’s description: In most developed countries, workers have the right to a certain number of paid sick days. It’s a policy that isn’t rooted in just generosity — during pandemics like the novel coronavirus, it can literally save lives. When workers have to choose between earning a living and staying home sick, it incentivizes them to come to work when they're ill, and potentially infect their colleagues and anyone else they come into contact with. That’s why public health officials are concerned that millions of American workers don’t have access to paid sick days. And a disproportionate share of those workers are concentrated in occupations like food service and hospitality, where there’s potential to infect the hundreds of customers many of them interact with every day.