OpEd: Sen. Boyd calls for paid sick-leave

Submitted by State Sen. Betty Boyd:

As the panic over H1N1 swine flu gives way to more reasoned precaution, Colorado has learned a very important lesson: We all have a shared responsibility for ensuring that our communities are healthy. And when our communities are threatened, we all need to step-up and do what we can.

As a member of the Colorado Legislature and an elected representative from this area, I believe there is more we, as Legislators, can do to protect our public health and protect our economy. We can send a message that the citizens, businesses and elected officials of the state of Colorado support paid sick days for every worker.

Here’s why …

In response to the risk of a pandemic flu outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a list of actions Americans should take to stay healthy. The CDC asked everyone who might be experiencing flu symptoms to stay home from work or school in order to limit contact with others and reduce the spread of contagions.

While the advice of a “contingency plan” to stay home from work or school appears to be prudent advice, we know that it’s not quite that simple. At least 43% of Colorado workers cannot stay home when they are sick because they lack paid sick days. In service industries that employ low-wage workers, like restaurants, it’s 86 percent of workers. Without paid sick days, workers are forced to choose between going to work sick – and possibly infecting the public – or losing much-needed income, or possibly their jobs, if they were to stay home. 

Clearly, working while sick contributes to the spread of diseases like H1N1 swine flu. And while that resonates with most of us, there is something else that might ring true specifically for business owners:  the economic cost of ill employees on the job. 

Sick workers are obviously less productive than healthy ones, and studies have shown that when sick workers are on the job it costs our national economy $180 billion a year in lost productivity. On the other hand, if workers were offered seven paid sick days a year, Colorado businesses would save $10.54 per worker per week. These savings would come from reduced turnover, lower productivity losses for sick workers on the job, and a healthier workforce. Indeed, Colorado businesses would save money by offering paid sick days.

If paid sick days are good for public health and good for business, then why is the United States the only one of the top 20 economies in the world to not have a national standard of paid sick days?

We ask workers to take responsibility and stay home if they are sick. We ask parents to keep their sick children home from school. But in order for this to be possible, we must also ask businesses to take part in this shared responsibility and offer their workers paid sick days.

As an elected member of the Legislature, I strongly urge businesses in the Lakewood area to take part in the shared responsibility of ensuring a healthy community and a vibrant marketplace by offering access to paid sick days for their workers.

Sincerely,

State Senator Betty Boyd, District 21
President Pro Tempore, Colorado State Senate
Chair, Senate Health and Human Services Committee