From home health care aides to restaurant employees, one in four U.S. workers have no paid sick days. According to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7 in 10 low-wage workers do not receive paid sick leave.
Emergency paid sick leave has become an urgent public health issue with the rapid spread of the coronavirus, says Nicolas Ziebarth, associate professor of economics at Cornell University in the College of Human Ecology. The virus showed no signs of slowing Monday. Confirmed cases surpassed 600 across more than 30 states and the District of Columbia. The U.S. death toll rose to 26.
“When people gain access to paid sick leave, the spread of the flu decreases,” he says. “It’s important in this situation that, when you have people who have symptoms and don’t feel well, that they do not go to work and spread diseases” to slow the infection rate and buy time for public health officials to develop a vaccine.
The move reflects how quickly paid sick leave – one of the options President Donald Trump is weighing to shield vulnerable workers and the American economy from the coronavirus – has risen to the top of the national political debate.In a White House briefing on Monday, Pence said he had been hearing from governors about the concern that hourly wage earners would feel they had to go to work even if they were ill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top congressional Democrats on Sunday urged Trump to take steps to protect workers, including paid sick leave for those being quarantined or caring for children kept home by school closures.
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