Paid sick leave has expanded across the U.S. as more states pass laws related to the issue.
Here are six notes about the efforts:
1. The U.S. is one of nearly a dozen countries that does not guarantee paid sick leave, according to the World Policy Analysis Center.
2. In early 2020, the Labor Department implemented the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act, both part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The FFCRA, signed in response to the pandemic, required covered employers to provide eligible employees up to two weeks of paid sick leave when the individual couldn't work because of reasons related to COVID-19. These provisions have since expired.
3. However, at the state level, paid sick leave has stuck, KFF Health News reported May 9. Pre-pandemic, 10 states and Washington, D.C., had paid sick leave laws, according to the media outlet. Colorado, New York, New Mexico, Illinois, and Minnesota have since passed such laws, and Oregon and California expanded previous paid leave laws. Advocates in Missouri, Alaska and Nebraska seek to have the issue on the ballot this fall, KFF Health News reported.
4. A recent Economic Policy Institute report found that the share of the lowest-wage workers with access to paid sick time increased from 20% in 2010 to 39% in 2023. Still, the report also found that 61% of these workers do not have access to the benefit.
5. An article published in September 2022 from the Pew Charitable Trusts highlighted four studies pointing to the benefits of paid sick leave, including a study in Preventive Medicine showing workers with paid sick leave seek preventive care more often.
6. But the National Federation of Independent Business is against mandates in states. Tim Goodrich, NFIB vice president of state government relations, wrote in a 2022 article: "The vast majority of small business owners provide flexibility for employees to pick up kids from school, attend tee ball games, and attend to family emergencies. A one-size-fits-all government mandate is both financially and administratively burdensome. NFIB opposes these unnecessary mandates."