Expanded Family Leave Benefits
29 June, 2009
By Jerry E. Stephens
Lack of paid sick leave could hamper efforts to fight flu epidemic
Photo by woodsy
The recent spread of the A(H1N1) influenza around the world – only declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in June – exposed a major shortcoming in American health care and health care-related policies. A real possibility exists that an epidemic in the United States might more widely affect the American population because of the absence of mandatory employer-provided sick leave benefits to workers. [1] This absence may be something of an unintended consequence of public policy decisions previously made in this country.
The authors of a study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research compared the sick leave benefits provided to employees in 22 different countries, mostly in Europe but including Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States. The authors found that the United States is the only one of these “rich” countries that fails to guarantee sick workers some form of paid sick leave. There is, in fact, no provision in current U.S. labor law requiring employers to provide any form of short-term paid sick days or any form of longer-term paid sick leave.
The presence of sick workers in public places may exacerbate any virulent occurrence of disease. But should we be equally concerned about other leave-related employee matters? Are America’s workers at risk in other ways by the absence of employer-provided leave benefits?
Two new studies should give us cause for concern. One is from the Center for American Progress and argues for a “progressive program for family leave insurance.” At the heart of this proposal is the recognition that “[i]n a nation where the vast majority of families now have no one at home to provide care, workers need paid time off from work to care for one another.” [2]
The other is a new study from researchers at Harvard University who find that 62.1 percent of bankruptcies in 2007 had a medical cause, an increase from 46.2 percent as recently as 2001. As the researchers note, “illness and medical bills contribute to a large and increasing share of U.S. bankruptcies.” [3]
The two studies dramatically emphasize problems facing America’s workers. The absence of mandatory-leave benefits may seriously affect the ability of workers struggling to cope with other dramatic medical and non-medical problems.
There is surely some public policy irony in that, at the same time, many leave benefits ideas are being considered by political leaders and legislators in a number of states. Most proposals would require businesses to grant employees additional time off for family or personal reasons. But, typical of these proposals is one providing for unpaid leave for school-related reasons in Colorado and Georgia. [4]
It is easy to conclude that most of these provisions for employer-provided leave benefits address something less than critical personal or family needs. For such critical needs, how does the American worker fare compared to those in other countries? A useful summary and comparison comes from a study published by The Project on Global Working Families of Boston. [5]
What are the strong work protections provided in our country? These include:
- policies that ensure an equitable right to work for all racial and ethnic groups, regardless of gender, age or disability
- policies that have reduced the poverty rates of the elderly, although notably less successful in protecting children from poverty; and
- policies guaranteeing a pay premium for overtime work.
And where does the United States lag behind other nations? Again, these include:
- policies providing leave around childbearing, particularly where many other nations provide guaranteed paid to women in connection with childbirth
- policies in support of breastfeeding even when proven to reduce infant mortality
- policies providing mandatory paid annual leave; and
- policies providing mandatory paid sick leave for short- or long-term illnesses or time to attend to major family events such as marriage or funerals.
Why do these mandatory leave provisions matter at all? The Project on Global Working Families report summarizes the need this way:
There is an enormous payoff to improving working conditions – from lowering long-term family poverty to improving population health and education and increasing their associated economic and social benefits. The data does not support the concern that good working conditions lead to job loss; none of these projections is associated with higher unemployment rates on a national level. Globally, the most economically competitive countries provide, on average, longer parental leave, as well as more leave to care for children. [6]A family or employee-centered conclusion seems inescapable. It is possible to have both a successful national economy, one that is competitive with other nations, and still provides a reasonable level of benefits to the nation’s workers. It is, after all, the continued ability of those very same workers to work assured of some level of protection from the traumas that occur every day that is the hallmark of a progressive nation’s social safety net.
Sources
- Jody Heymann et al. Contagion Nation: A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries. Washington, DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2009. The study is available at http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/paid-sick-days-2009-05.pdf
- Heather Boushey. Helping Breadwinners When It Can’t Wait: A Progressive Program for Family Leave Insurance. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2009. The premise for the CAP report is the “seismic shift” that has occurred over the past half century “in how we work and we provide care for our families....” The shift is from families with a single working parent and one stay-at-home parent to the majority of families with two working parents or a single, working parent. See the introduction on page 1. The report is available at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/06/pdf/fmla.pdf
- David U. Himmelstein et al. Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a National Study. The American Journal of Medicine, vol.20 (March 2009), p.1. The study is available at http://www.pnhp.org/new_bankruptcy_study/Bankruptcy-2009.pdf
- An article somewhat critical of these proposals in the states was published in the Wall Street Journal on June 22. 2009. The article quotes the Colorado state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a lobbyist-opponent of the Colorado proposals, as arguing that “mandatory-leave laws unfairly burden businesses struggling with the recession.” The article is available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124562668421735651.html” (last visited on June 23, 2009).
- . Jody Heymann et al. The Work, Family, and Equity Index: How Does the United States Measure Up? Montreal, Quebec: The Project on Global Working Families, The Institute for Health and Social Policy, 2004. Available at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/globalworkingfamilies/images/report.pdf
(last visited on June 23, 2009).
- Id. at p.9.
© 2009 Jerry E. Stephens
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Email: jstephens6@cox.net
