Before the pandemic, nearly two dozen states had passed laws barring local governments from mandating paid sick leave policies, a problem that may be contributing to a rise in worker deaths, according to a new study.
The death rate for American workers rose 6% from 2010 to 2017, although the death rate for infants and people over 65 fell during that period, according to a Syracuse University analysis. published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The United States is the only wealthy nation that does not have a federal law guaranteeing paid sick days for its workers, leaving the issue up to states, local governments and employers to decide. This lack of paid sick leave became a problem during the covid-19 pandemicas millions of workers were forced to decide between their own health and their payrolls.
According to the researchers, four counties — Florida’s Orange County and Texas’ Bexar, Dallas and Travis counties — tried to pass paid sick leave requirements, but were blocked because their states barred counties from passing worker protection laws.
In large cities located in states where local governments are prohibited from enacting paid sick leave laws, worker death rates could be reduced by more than 5% if those cities could require 40 hours of annual paid sick leave , the researchers said.
“State prevention laws that protect benefits over individuals may be shortening the lives of working-age Americans,” co-author Jennifer Karas Montez of Syracuse University said in a statement about the research.
He added that the researchers were “surprised” by the size of the impact on mortality in states where sick leave laws are prohibited by local governments.
Implementation of paid sick days laws
Fourteen states and Washington, DC mandate paid sick days for workers, who generally accrue paid time off based on the number of hours they work. For example, California employees are guaranteed one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
Before the pandemic, 23 states had passed laws preventing local governments from requiring employers to provide paid sick time, although five of those states had state-level paid sick leave laws, according to a 2020 analysis by the Urban Institute.
That means workers in many states “are not entitled to paid sick time and can access it only if their employer chooses to offer it as a benefit,” Urban’s researchers noted. According to the HR site SHRM, states without laws guaranteeing paid sick leave range from Alabama to Wyoming.
Syracuse University researchers found that each additional hour of mandatory work leave is associated with “a significant reduction in suicide and homicide mortality for men, and alcohol-related homicide and death for women.” .
The researchers added that workers who cannot access paid sick leave and need time off to recover from illness are more likely to experience financial hardship and job loss, increasing the risk of drug use and suicide .
“[E]Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the absence of a paid sick leave requirement has contributed to worrying rising mortality trends among working-age adults,” they noted.
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