Why is it that a country as poor as Haiti can give workers the right to paid sick days but the United States doesn’t? (Photo credit: Flirckr user A. Thompson Photography)
38 percentAi??of American private-sector workers do not get paid sick days at work.
The United States stands alone among rich countries in not guaranteeing paid sick leave as a right of employment.
But it isn’t just rich nations that offer this right. On the shores of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, Haiti, workers are guaranteed 15 days of paid sick leave. In Nigeria, a country wracked with unrest, the “labor code requires employers to provide employees up to 12Ai??days of paid sick leave a year.”
Why is that all the world’s comparably rich nations and many of its poorest guarantee paid sick leave but the United States does not? Powerful corporations lobby government officials to kill any legislation to guarantee paid sick leave. When Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) in 2009 introducedAi??a bill called theAi??Healthy Families ActAi??that would have required businesses that have at least 15 employees to offer some paid sick time to their employees, the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Retail Federation, the American Hotel and Lodging Association and others signed up in opposition. The bill never moved forward.Ai??In 2011, , the local chamber of commerce worked with restaurants and business-backed tourism groups toAi??finance aAi??propagandaAi??campaignAi??in against Denver, Colorado’s paid sick leave referendum. Voters were scared off, and the referendum was defeated.
But there is hope for progressives who think the United States shouldn’t be playing catch-up with countries like Haiti and Nigeria. Last year, Connecticut became the first state in the country to guarantee paid sick leave to some of its workers. And pressure is mounting on New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to allow a vote on a paid sick leave policy for her city. Join our campaign to ask Quinn to hold a vote by using the link at the top right.
The US needs to catch up!
In regards to Citizen’s United , I wonder why no calls it exactly what is, a vast money laundering scheme. One in which the participants see no decrease in their net wealth and the economy realizes no benefit. And as a Medicare recipient and a former healthcare worker I completely support a single payer Medicare for all program. The argument is simple. How do you pursue life, liberty and happiness without your health?
Many US corporations have changed to a Paid Days Off policy meaning if you use days for illness, you lose vacation days. Net result is that workers go into work sick spreading their illnesses to other workers.
Blame it on those Mayflower runaway religious purists who were so afraid they could only cling to their limited view wherein everyone but they were beyond the pale they could not stand for joy as it might fracture their straight jacketed lives. Their tunnel vision was such that their lives were as programmed as any robot. Guided by the stiffest of available necks, ready to condemn anyone, and women were only a necessary evil and I do mean an evil which must be watched as beings having so weak a character as to be little more than cattle, less trustworthy than feral dogs.
I agree with all the above-noted comments–especially the one by Sue. As a registered nurse, I am very concerned that sick health care employees come to work and spread their infected respiratory droplets to patients and co-workers. There are research studies which demonstrate the financial outlay for paid sick leave is worth it, in the interests of illness prevention, avoiding greater costs down the road.
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