Two New Reports on the Need for Paid Sick Days

Access to Paid Sick Days Would Reduce Health Costs – The Institute for Women’s Policy Research have a forthcoming report showing that giving employees access to paid sick days would reduce the number of visits to hospital emergency rooms. The report estimates that a national paid sick days bill would save $1 billion in medical costs per year. About half of which is currently paid by public insurance programs.

The report concludes that paid sick days is “associated with better self-reported health, fewer delays in medical care, and fewer emergency department visits for adults and their children.”

Rural Workers Have Less Access to Paid Sick Days – According to this new report from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, rural workers have significantly less access to paid sick leave than other workers. Among the key findings of the report are that:

1. A greater proportion of rural workers than urban workers (both suburban and central-city) lack access to at least five paid sick days per year,
2. Among business-sector workers, rural employees are less likely to have paid sick days than their urban counterparts, and
3. Rural workers who agree that workers are less likely to advance if they use flexible workplace policies have less access to paid sick days than their urban and suburban counterparts.