Earned Sick Leave: How Local Officials Can Improve Public Health and Economic Security

Everyone gets sick, but not everyone is able to take the time they need to get better. Without the ability to take paid time away from work to deal with illness, workers must either forgo critical wages — and possibly risk job loss — in order to stay home and recover, or come into work sick and risk their own health and that of their coworkers and the public.

As cities across the U.S. continue to report high COVID-19 case numbers amid the spread of the omicron variant, millions of workers, many of whom are considered essential, are left without the ability to take paid time off to rest and recover when they or a family member is sick.  In our new report with the National Partnership for Women & FamiliesEarned Sick Leave: How Local Officials Can Improve Public Health and Economic Securitywe point to a policy solution that could support all workers: earned sick leave. These policies allow workers to accrue time off with pay to use when they must be absent from work to take care of a personal or family member’s illness.

Additional Resources

Learn more about the impact earned sick leave can have in cities across the country