By in Rhode Island’s Future
Among the basic provisions of this
legislation are the following:
- Annual accrual of 56 hours (equivalent to seven 8-hour work days) of earned sick leave.
- Ability to make use of paid leave after 90 days.
- Rollover of unused sick leave into new calendar year, with option to instead pay employees for unused time.
- Protection of earned sick leave time in the event an employee is transferred to a different division of the same company, and in the event that “an employer succeeds or takes the place of an existing employer”.
As of March 2016, five states have passed earned
paid sick time legislation, including three of our New England
neighbors, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
As well, at least fifteen
cities and counties have passed legislation providing earned paid sick leave,
including San Francisco, Washington, DC, New York, Philadelphia, Portland (OR),
and San Diego.
The experience of those jurisdictions
that have been leaders in enacting family-supporting earned paid sick leave is
instructive.
In San Francisco, the first jurisdiction to introduce earned
paid sick leave, employment in the five years after implementation of their earned
paid sick leave provisions grew twice as fast in the city than in neighboring
counties lacking earned paid sick leave, and grew even faster in the food
service and hospitality industries with significant concentrations of workers
benefiting from the new provisions.
A report by the Center on Economic and Policy Research found that in neighboring Connecticut,
the policy was implemented at little to no cost for business (consistent with findings from an Economic
Policy Institute study
prior to passage), and that two years after initial implementation, more than
three-quarters of employers were supportive of the law.
Provision of earned paid sick days
results in significant savings for both employers and government:
Employer savings are considerable, and include
savings due to:
- increased worker productivity,
- Lower turnover rates
- Reduced workplace contagion from reduced presenteeism (attending work while sick)
- Fewer workplace injuries
Government saves through savings to public health insurance programs,
through reduced reliance on emergency rooms for treatment of illnesses.
With
availability of paid sick time, an employee is able to schedule an appointment
with his/her primary care provider for diagnosis and treatment.
One
recent study shows that extending earned paid sick leave to all currently
uncovered would save over $1.1 billion annually, including savings of $517 million to
public health insurance programs such as Medicaid.
Other savings result from reduced reliance on public assistance,
as nearly one in four employees report losing a job or being threatened with
job loss for taking time off due to personal or family illness.
Earned paid
sick leave gives employees much needed economic security, which is critical to
family stability.
One significant reason to pass paid
sick leave legislation is that failing to do so further exacerbates disparities
based on income. The Economic Policy Institute shows in stark terms that “rich people have paid sick days
[while] poor people do not.”
While only one in five (20 percent) of private
sector workers in the bottom 10 percent of wage earners has earned paid sick
time, nearly nine in ten (87 percent) of top-five wage earners have earned paid
sick time.
The case for providing earned paid
sick leave to workers in Rhode Island is strong. It’s good for businesses and
workers, making Rhode Island a more family-friendly place to live and work.
Douglas Hall PhD is
the Director of Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Economic Progress Institute.