Take ‘Parade’ Magazine’s Online Poll on Paid Sick Leave

[Omaha Steve]

Click link below to take the poll.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/06/10/take-parade-magazines-online-poll-on-paid-sick-leave/

by Mike Hall, Jun 10, 2008

Parade magazine wants to know if you support requiring employers to provide workers with paid sick days.

This past weekend, Parade, which comes in more than 400 Sunday papers, reaching an audience of 70 million readers, featured a story on the lack of paid sick leave days for U.S. workers. As part of the feature, Parade is conducting an online poll about paid sick days. Click here to vote.

Nearly 50 percent of private-sector workers have no paid sick days, and low-income workers fare even worse—76 percent have no paid sick leave. Overall, 57 million private-sector workers in this country have no paid sick days and 94 million cannot use their paid sick days to care for a sick child.

The Healthy Families Act (S. 910 and H.R. 1542) would guarantee paid sick leave for workers to recover from an illness or care for a sick family member. Workers without paid sick leave are forced to make wrenching choices between work and family.

The Parade article points out that a cost-benefit analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research shows passage of the bill could save the U.S. economy $8.1 billion a year by preventing lost productivity due to sick workers, the spread of illness to co-workers and customers and worker turnover.

Last year, Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, told a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing:

The United States lags far behind the rest of the world in providing paid leave, including countries with some of the strongest economies in the world: At least 145 nations provide paid leave for short- or long-term illnesses, and 127 of those nations guarantee a week or more of paid sick days per year to their workforce.

Don’t forget to join the National Partnership for Women & Families‘ online rally for paid sick leave. When you visit the rally site, you can learn how to take action, share your story and more. So far, thousands of working people have taken part in the online rally, where they have heard from community leaders, workers and union leaders about why we need a fundamental law ensuring paid sick days.


Click here to join the rally.

[Deja Q]

1. Employers do have finite resources, true, but the same can be said of workers.

A healthy worker is bound to be happier

[Fovea]

2. It's running

95% yes.
5% pro greed.

[Bettie]

3. I no longer work in an office (or outside my home)

But I HATED it when people would come to work sick. It is a great way to spread diseases around the office and share the misery with others.

Paid sick leave (if employees feel like they can use it) can keep other workers healthy! It can also help the sick person get over their illness more quickly.

Of course everyone should have at least a couple of paid sick days!

[Fovea]

5. I always took a fair number of sick days in the ER.

but all the new viruses came through with the pediatric patients.

In almost six years I got every childhood disease I missed except chicken pox.

When you stay home because you've been exposed to Meningiococcus you do the world a big ass favor in my book.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. People come to work sick in medical schools!!!

They should know better.

I know a person whose boss went to the doctor, was TOLD to stay home, and went to work anyway at the medical school and made several other people ill.

This idiot had an Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) :wtf:

Obviously, some people at this medical school do not have the principles that any good health care professional would have, to not make other people sick.

[silverlib]

4. Just a K&R