Employers Who Don't Offer Paid Sick Leave Are Making Flu Season Worse and Hurting Their Own Bottom Line

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates 28 percent of civilian employees lack access to paid sick leave, which is likely to add to the severity of the current flu season, reports the Washington Post . Multiple studies indicate that employees without access to paid sick days are more likely to go to work sick than those with it. A 2010 policy brief published by the Institute for Women's Policy Research cited data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the BLS to determine that during the 2009 flu season, about 8 million American workers went to work while infected, causing an additional 7 million people to become ill in the process. Rates of showing up to work sick were much lower in the public sector, where paid sick leave is offered more frequently than in the private sector. Meanwhile, a 2016 study from the National Bureau for Economic Research found the launch of sick leave mandates lowered the incidence of flu-like illnesses by about 6 percent across the total population. A 2017 study published in PLOS One found access to paid sick leave made employees significantly more likely to stay home with a flu-like illness. The CDC also determined that "providing paid sick leave to workers who lack it might help decrease the number of workdays lost as a result of flu and similar illnesses by nearly 4 to 11 million per year," leading to overall cost savings of $1 billion to $2 billion.