In light of the rapidly spreading coronavirus, Democrats have introduced expanded legislation that would require all employers to grant workers paid sick days.
Bill sponsors Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rosa DeLauro showed leadership by separating paid sick days from the broader liberal campaign for paid family leave, which presents a far higher cost to employers and is a much heavier lift for lawmakers. Republicans, who have fought against mandating paid sick days, should not offer blind resistance. At the very least, they should consider the proposal as it affects health and long-term care workers.
Murray and others have been advocating for paid sick days for a long time â a benefit that most higher-paid people take for granted but many lower-paid people donât receive from their employers. If Congress had acted on this issue last year, the United States would be in a much better position to handle the pandemic.
Our health and long-term care system now provides a strong incentive for many low-paid people to go to work when they are sick. This is now multiplying the pathways through the coronavirus spreads. Further congressional inaction will likely exacerbate an expected shortage of healthcare workers. And given what is known about the novel disease, itâs fair to say that it will likely raise the death toll, particularly among the frail and elderly people.
Research shows that the rate of flu infection is lower in places requiring paid sick days than in places that do not. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has pointed out that public health officials cannot work effectively if political leaders fail to improve health equity in the workforce. He suggests several ad hoc ways to help stem the current crisis. These include setting up a fund to compensate hourly workers without paid leave for their loss of income when sick, providing legal aid for those who are fired for not coming to work when ill, funding outreach to non-English speakers, asking insurers to waive copays for testing and treatment, supplementing funding for community health centers that care for a large proportion of those without insurance, and ensuring free meals are available for children when schools are closed.
These ideas are a good start, but the spreading virus challenges Congress and the White House to do more. If the Democratsâ latest proposal is a bridge too far, Republicans might consider a compromise measure that includes paid sick days for providers and caregivers, higher Medicaid rates to support paid sick days, and emergency funds for employers that suffer from the requirement. This would protect public health while mitigating financial distress for providers not yet offering paid leave who are operating on thin margins.
The number of U.S. workers with paid sick leave has risen over the past few years, driven in part by legislation enacted by 10 states and the District of Columbia requiring employers to provide it. Despite this progress, 34.2 million private sector workers still cannot earn a single paid sick day to recover from the flu, care for a sick child, or seek preventive care. Among establishments providing vulnerable people with healthcare and social assistance, 15% lack this benefit.
In a Health Affairs article published at the beginning of this Congress, I identified political obstacles to getting a paid sick leave requirement into law. Liberals have packaged paid sick days, which would primarily affect low-wage workers, as part of an ambitious legislative push for much more expensive paid family leave. Thus, a relatively low-cost benefit for many healthcare and other workers on the front lines is being held hostage to a much more expensive middle- and upper-middle-class objective.
Obstacles on the political right are obvious. Leery of offending business interests, conservatives historically avoid legislation raising the cost of labor. Paid sick days are no exception.
It would be civic-minded for lobbies representing nursing homes, home health providers, hospitals, and physicians to support legislation requiring paid sick days for lower-paid workers. But donât hold your breath, not even in the midst of a pandemic. To avoid offending the minority of their members that donât offer paid sick days, they will likely skirt the issue while doing their best in other ways to fight the spread of the virus. I hope that Iâm proven wrong in this assumption.
The threat posed by the coronavirus presents a rare opportunity for members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to free themselves from the webs of past politics and move forward on this issue.
Karl Polzer is the founder of the Center on Capital & Social Equity.
