Sick workers can bring infectious diseases into the workplace. The Center for Disease Control recommends that workers who are ill “stay home from work” to prevent the spread of disease in the workplace and community. A worker without paid sick days, choosing between going to work sick and staying home without pay, may have no rational choice but to ignore the CDC’s advice and take their germs to work.

Residents Rally for Paid Sick Days
for All New Yorkers

An Answer

In New York City, 1.3 million people do not have paid sick days. 

We all have a stake in paid sick days.

KNOW THE FACTS:

• More than 44 million workers, including 1.3 million in New York, do not have paid sick days.
• Workers earning low-wages are the least likely to have paid sick days. Only 19 percent of low-wage workers have access to paid sick days.
• Many workers with a significant interaction with the public do not have paid sick days. This includes three in four food service workers, three in five personal health care workers and three in four child care workers.
• 1 in 6 workers have been fired or threatened with being fired for taking time off work to care for a personal or family illness.

There is no question as to the public’s interest in limiting the spread of common diseases such as the flu, which causes tens of thousands of deaths every year. This risk increases when ill workers have high levels of contact with the public, especially those employed in food service, nursing homes, child care centers, and the retail industry. Despite this risk, workers whose jobs necessitate exposure to the public disproportionately lack paid sick days.

We need your help. If you believe as we do, that paid sick days promote overall public health, please add your name to our supporters list, download materials to promote us in your workplace, and send your legislators a copy of our letter of support.