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The brief explores the distributional impact of three alternative policy models for providing paid sick days taken from actual policies in the states and a federal proposal selected to show a range of generosity of provision. San Francisco was the first U.S. locality to pass paid sick days in 2006. Their Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (PSLO) covers nearly all workers in San Francisco and provides up to five days per year for workers employed in small businesses (under ten employees) and up to nine days per year for workers employed in larger businesses. More recently, in March 2016, Vermont became the fifth state to pass paid sick days providing 3 days per year starting in 2017. However, Vermont workers must work at least 18 hours a week for at least 20 weeks to be eligible. At the national level, the Healthy Families Act has been introduced in Congress and proposes requiring larger employers (15 or more employees) to provide up to 7 paid sick days per year; smaller employers are not required to pay workers while they are on sick leave but would be required to allow them to return to work without retaliation.

Key Takeaways

• Depending on the reason for leave and the policy alternative, 12 to 17 percent of workers will receive new paid sick days compared with current policy.
• A national paid sick day policy would benefit proportionately more women than men and proportionally more workers of color than white workers, compared with the current policy.
• Low-income workers would see their share of paid sick days increase the most.
• Leave-taking across all firms would increase under a national paid sick days policy, with workers in the smallest firms seeing the greatest increase in their share of paid sick days.
• Workers in the occupations and industries with the lowest current rates of providing sick days would benefit the most from a national paid sick days policy.

Citation

IMPAQ International. (2017). Estimating the Distributional Impacts of Alternative Policies to Provide Paid Sick Days in the United States. Issue Brief—Worker Leave Analysis and Simulation Series. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.