RUTGERS — About 1.2 million workers in New Jersey do not have paid sick days, roughly 38 percent of the private sector work force, according to Rutgers researchers.
Changing that by mandating paid days off for ill workers would be a windfall for the health of people in the state, according to The Center for Women and Work at Rutgers, which highlighted the benefits in a report released Thursday.
“People without paid sick days are more likely to send a sick child to school than workers that do have paid sick days,” said Karen White, director of the work and family programs at the center. “As a result, the public’s health is at risk.”
Guaranteeing paid sick days would reduce the spread of seasonal flu and pandemics and bring a host of other health improvements, she said.
But a New Jersey business leader panned the idea, saying the cost would cripple vulnerable business owners.
“I think it would have a tremendously negative effect, especially on small employers. They can’t afford it and they don’t have the people to replace people with substantial duties,” said Phil Kirschner, president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. “And the timing couldn’t be worse.”
Kirschner said not having to offer paid sick days does not mean small businesses do not make accommodations for sick workers.
Guaranteeing paid sick days would lower health care costs, according to Jonathan Heller, Human Impact Partners, which took part in the study. The measure would reduce unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency room visits, he said.
According to Heller, 76 percent of food workers do not have paid sick days and half of food-borne disease outbreaks occur in restaurants.
Business associations in other parts of the country have opposed legislation mandating paid sick days. One business advocate in Washington D.C., likened one proposal to a 3 percent tax on businesses there.
But Robert Drago of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, which also took part in the study, said businesses in San Franscisco, which mandated paid sick days several years ago, pass the costs on to employees by making them pick up the slack for ill co-workers.
Drago said only 14 percent of San Francisco business owners reported an adverse effect on profits.
No proposal is currently before the New Jersey Legislature.
But the federal Healthy Families Act legislation was reintroduced in both the House and Senate on May 12. It would require businesses with 15 or more employees to provide workers with up to seven days of paid sick leave.
According to the Rutgers report, 42 percent of employed adults without paid sick leave go to work when sick compared with 28 percent of those with that benefit.
Pressure on people to work sick remains high. One in six workers in the United States reported that they or a family member has been fired, suspended, punished or threatened by an employer due to needing to time off for an illness, according to the report.
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