Earned Sick Leave is a Commonsense and Urgently Needed Policy

You wake up with a fever over 100 degrees. You are achy and sneezing and you know you need to see a doctor. But, you are scheduled to work an 8-hour shift that day. If you call in sick, you will lose the money you had put aside for this week’s groceries. What do you do?

Close to 6 million Californians have to struggle with this type of no-win situation when they or a family member is ill. In our state, a vast majority of low-wage hourly workers don’t have the opportunity to earn even an hour of paid sick leave.  But, that could change if Assembly Bill 1522 is passed and signed into law. AB 1522 would allow all California workers the opportunity to earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, whether they are part or full time employees. Workers will be allowed to aggregate those hours for up to 3 days, or 24 hours, of earned sick leave every year.

As a single mom, I know the pressures that working parents face at the workplace and at home.  It’s hard enough when I am sick, but the challenges grow when it’s my kids that are ill. Keeping your son or daughter home for the day from school requires child care if you’re expected to be at work. If you can’t get that day off from work, your kid is going to school sick, potentially spreading the flu or cold to others in their class. And if you’re not able to take the day off to care for your child at home, chances are you’re not going to be able to get them in to see your family doctor, increasing the possibility that you use the emergency room as a substitute for primary care. Studies confirm that parents without sick leave are five times more likely to rely on emergency room services for their sick child. What’s the cost nationwide for these very preventable emergency room visits on our health care system? It’s $1.3 billion annually.

Most workers in California that don’t have earned sick time work in industries that have increased interaction with others, adding a public health component to the complications of not having paid time off.  Food service, retail and child care are among the industries that have high numbers of workers who can’t earn paid sick leave, despite their close and constant interaction with other people. When thinking about the flu outbreak earlier this year that infected thousands in our state and even claimed the lives of more than 300 Californians, providing a minimum safety net for sick workers appears to be a public health necessity.

With Congress broken, California has led the way on the important issues that our state can’t afford to wait for any longer, such as raising the minimum wage and enacting sensible policies toward immigrant families. We have the opportunity to pave another righteous pathway for working families this year by passing AB 1522.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez represents the 80th Assembly District, in and around San Diego.

 

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