Immediate access to paid leave has never been more urgent in the U.S. Paid leave is an important tool in our public health toolkit. It supports workers and families when they are sick, which helps to keep COVID-19 out of work places. It is also critical right now because it supports a robust vaccine program by giving workers paid time off to go and get the shot and recover from potential side effects.
Among economically advanced countries, the United States is one of only two that does not guarantee paid time off for a worker who gets sick and one of only a handful who do not allow time off when a worker’s family member needs care. This is especially troubling in the face of highly contagious illnesses, when workers face losing income or their job if they choose to stay home when they develop symptoms. An analysis of COVID-19 cases investigated by the staff of Denver Public Health between March 2020 and October 2020 found more than three-quarters of COVID-19 symptomatic individuals reported working while ill.
This behavior makes sense. In an economy where 50-75% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, the prospect of losing even one paycheck due to illness could be devastating; getting fired for staying home too many days in a row to care for your family would be even worse; missing out on a life-saving vaccine would be catastrophic for not just workers but also for public health.
Just before Christmas, Congress passed a COVID-19 relief bill that failed to extend one of the single-most effective public health measures implemented by Congress in March: the emergency paid sick and family leave provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA). This decision is now having devastating consequences on millions of American workers, their families, and the general public.
We know that paid sick days would have worked to control the spread of the virus. A recent study published in Health Affairs found that the sick leave provisions in the FFCRA prevented approximately 400 cases per day in the 39 states with no paid sick leave mandate. That’s more than 15,000 cases prevented each day in the U.S. — though that number is likely higher now, since community transmission of the disease is even more widespread now than it was in March and April, when the research was completed. The remarkable success of paid sick days in flattening the curve was achieved even with known problems of implementation and enforcement.
Now, as states begin to distribute vaccines to older adults, frontline workers, and others, many workers will be forced to miss out because they can’t take time off when clinics are open or because they fear side effects that may require taking a day off. This is particularly true for women and BIPOC workers, who are less likely to have access to paid time off now, and are more likely to be in employment that puts them at risk of contracting COVID-19.
Thankfully, the Biden Administration has included paid leave in their ambitious COVID-19 relief proposal, but the full details are still unknown.
As Congress takes up consideration of this proposal, they must enact bold policy that matches the urgency of this national crisis. Workers must have immediate access, so that when they get that much awaited phone call with the date and time of their vaccination appointment, they can be there. No worker, regardless of occupation, hours worked, or employer size, should be excluded. Employers must be reimbursed for workers’ leave for the length of the pandemic, since there isn’t time to build up a public insurance fund in the midst of this emergency. Importantly, the paid leave program must include sick leave for short-term illness, medical leave for longer term health concerns, and family leave to care for sick loved ones and children who are home from school due to shut-downs and quarantines. And there must be full pay for those who were eligible for the full December 2020 stimulus payments.
Congress should not walk away again to leave roughly 87 million workers to face the dreadful choice of whether to keep food on the table, a roof over their heads, or a vaccine to make them safe even when it means exposing customers and co-workers to COVID-19.
Given the profound success of the emergency paid leave programs in preventing further spread of the coronavirus early on in the pandemic, we cannot afford more delay. Passing a comprehensive paid leave plan should be one of the first actions of the new Congress and Administration. A successful vaccination program demands nothing less.
Jennifer C. Greenfield, PhD, MSW is an associate professor at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work. Nancy Reichman, PhD, is professor emerita in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver.
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