The Public Welfare Foundation has released results of a survey that found a majority of Americans want paid sick days. The survey was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago earlier this year. The Public Welfare Foundation, in Washington D.C., supports work in various areas of reform, including criminal justice, health reform and workers' rights.

Around 40 million American workers have no paid sick days. The survey found almost one in six people has lost a job because of having to take time off to care for a sick family member, a sick child, or for personal illness. Nearly 70 percent of respondents say that paid sick days are important for workers, and 75 percent are in favor of a law guaranteeing paid sick days for all workers. The support is across demographic boundaries and political parties.

A hypothetical law giving full-time workers up to nine paid sick days per year was endorsed by 70 percent of respondents, and 86 percent supported a law for up to seven paid sick days per year. Most of the respondents said paid sick days are a worker's basic right.

Small Companies Are Different

The results are more mixed on smaller employers. Most of the people polled favored a plan to require employers with fewer than 15 employees to offer fewer work days than a larger employer, but most also felt that even smaller employers should provide some paid sick days.

The survey's results indicate potential public health issues due to employees showing up at work while sick. More than half the respondents, 55 percent of those without paid sick days, have gone to work with a contagious illness like the flu. By comparison, only 37 percent of those workers with paid sick days have gone to work ill. Ten percent of those with paid sick days have gone to a hospital emergency room for care because they were unable to leave work for care during normal work hours. However, 20 percent of those without paid sick days did the same. Eighteen percent of those without paid sick days took a family member to a hospital emergency room because they could not take off from work.

"People who don't have paid sick days are very vulnerable," said Diane Camper, communications officer at the Public Welfare Foundation. "They face a terrible choice of either losing their job or losing wages, so they show up to work sick, which creates public health risks for everyone."

Camper also said, "What the survey shows is that a majority of people in every racial group, every income level, every age group, every part of the country and in both political parties see paid sick days as a basic worker's right, just like being paid a decent wage."

The survey also noted that 42 percent of respondents would be more likely to vote for a candidate who expressed support for paid sick days legislation.

The survey results can be accessed at: http://www.publicwelfare.org/resources/DocFiles/psd2010final.pdf

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