New Study on Public Health Benefits of Paid Sick Leave Just In Time for California Legislation

By Jonathan Heller, Ph.D and
Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH

A new study released this afternoon finds that 70% of restaurant workers must choose between staying home when sick or getting a pay check, because they don’t have paid sick days. Almost 40 percent of California’s workforce—more than 5 million workers—do not have the right to take paid time off from work when they are sick. For the first time, researchers have decided to take a close look at the health costs and consequences of the state’s sick day gap.

Human Impact Partners and researchers at the San Francisco Department of Public Health jointly released the study - a Health Impact Assessment - of proposed legislation AB 2716 (Ma) that would guarantee all workers in the state at least one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. The legislation, the Healthy Families, Healthy Workplaces Act, has passed in the State Assembly and is currently being considered by the State Senate.

The study finds: “Substantial evidence indicates that the law would have significant positive public health impacts for workers and for all Californians.” It further documents evidence showing that guaranteed paid sick days for all workers would help reduce the spread of flu; protect the public from diseases carried by sick workers in restaurants and in nursing homes; enable workers to stay home when they need to care for a sick dependent; and prevent hunger and homelessness among low-income workers with severe illnesses. The study also finds that workers with the greatest needs for paid sick days – like those whose children have asthma or other chronic diseases – currently are those that frequently do not have the benefit.

Other articles from the California Progress Report on paid sick leave and AB 2716 can be read by clicking here.

Jonathan Heller, Ph.D. is the Project Director of Human Impact Partners. Rajiv Bhatia is the Director of Occupational and Environmental Health for the City and County of San Francisco’s Department of Public Health and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco who teaches a course in the Health Impact Assessment of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.

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