Massachusetts Paid Leave Coalition

Paid Sick Days are Good for Business

Denver Business Journal/Viewpoint

Paid sick days are good for business
By Brian Feeman
Friday, May 27, 2011

Businesses benefit when their employees have access to paid sick days.

How do I know? As the owner of Grower's Organic, a company that distributes organic produce to restaurants and grocery stores throughout the Denver area, I offer paid sick days because it's cheaper in the short term, and saves money and maximizes profit in the long run.

Advocates for paid sick days are running a municipal campaign in Denver that would guarantee a basic standard of paid sick days for employees. Business people should support this effort because it's just good business. Consider:

• Productivity -- When sick employees stay home, they recover from illness and are able to get back working at full productivity faster than if they report to work sick. In fact, "presenteeism," when employees work sick, is estimated to cost our national economy $62 billion more per year than worker absences.

Furthermore, not taking time off during illness can extend workers' recovery time and even more lost productivity. We can't afford to have employees drag for several days because they didn't take the sick time they needed to recover.

• Worker stability -- Offering paid sick days reduces employee turnover -- a critical issue considering that recruiting, interviewing and training workers can cost anywhere from 25 to 200 percent of annual compensation. Business owners report that workers with paid sick days are more satisfied, productive and loyal, especially important to companies in lower-wage industries where turnover is high. Our employees tell us that receiving paid sick days is an important part of feeling valued on our team.

• Workforce health -- Employees without paid sick days are less likely to stay home when contagious, spreading illness to their co-workers and multiplying the lost productivity. Needless to say, we all appreciate it when our co-workers keep their stomach flu to themselves.

• Disease prevention -- A little over a year ago, the Tri-County Health Department (which serves Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties) investigated an outbreak of norovirus, or "stomach flu," in a local restaurant. It stemmed from an ill worker who infected 21 of 71 fellow employees, and sickened a number of patrons, resulting in at least three emergency room visits. The restaurant closed and lost 1½ days of revenue, the workers lost 1½ days of pay, and it's impossible to estimate the lost wages for the identified and unidentified sick customers.

Our customers depend on us to help them promote their health; I can't think of anything worse than being the source of a client's illness.

The United States is the only developed country in the world without a national sick day law. In the absence of such a policy, cities such as Milwaukee, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have enacted paid sick day legislation to promote business success and protect workers.

While opponents of paid sick days predicted these laws would be disastrous for local economies during the campaigns, it's just not true.

Since passing its paid sick leave ordinance, San Francisco has outperformed adjacent counties in job growth, even during the recession. The number of workers with paid sick days in the city increased from 65 to 82 percent.

A study that surveyed more than 59,000 employers found that the new policy wasn't harmful for them or the economy:

• A majority of employers reported little difficulty in implementing the policy.

• 68 percent of employers support the sick leave policy.

• 86 percent of employers didn't agree that the policy had a negative impact on profitability.

• 93 percent reported that predictability of absences wasn't a problem.

The reality is paid sick leave policies are good for business and lead to improved outcomes in productivity, worker stability, workforce health and disease prevention.

The majority of employers want the best for their workers and for the bottom line, and the good news is that laws on paid sick leave can benefit both.

• Disease prevention -- A little over a year ago, the Tri-County Health Department (which serves Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties) investigated an outbreak of norovirus, or "stomach flu," in a local restaurant. It stemmed from an ill worker who infected 21 of 71 fellow employees, and sickened a number of patrons, resulting in at least three emergency room visits. The restaurant closed and lost 1½ days of revenue, the workers lost 1½ days of pay, and it's impossible to estimate the lost wages for the identified and unidentified sick customers.

Our customers depend on us to help them promote their health; I can't think of anything worse than being the source of a client's illness.

The United States is the only developed country in the world without a national sick day law. In the absence of such a policy, cities such as Milwaukee, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have enacted paid sick day legislation to promote business success and protect workers.

While opponents of paid sick days predicted these laws would be disastrous for local economies during the campaigns, it's just not true.

Since passing its paid sick leave ordinance, San Francisco has outperformed adjacent counties in job growth, even during the recession. The number of workers with paid sick days in the city increased from 65 to 82 percent.

A study that surveyed more than 59,000 employers found that the new policy wasn't harmful for them or the economy:

• A majority of employers reported little difficulty in implementing the policy.

• 68 percent of employers support the sick leave policy.

• 86 percent of employers didn't agree that the policy had a negative impact on profitability.