Massachusetts Paid Leave Coalition

Resources

MASSACHUSETTS RESEARCH

Valuing Good Health in Massachusetts: The Costs and Benefits of Paid Sick Days (2012)
Institute for Women's Policy Research

This study reveals that Massachusetts businsesses would save money if the earned sick time law were passed. The study also shows that improved public health will save millions of dollars in reduced ER visits.

Paid Sick Days in Massachusetts Would Lower Health Care Costs by Reducing Unnecessary Emergency Department Visits (2012)
Institute for Women's Policy Research

If Massachusetts workers without paid sick days were to gain access, about 27,450 emergency department visits would be prevented each year, reducing health care costs by $23.4 million annually, including 13.8 million in savings to public health insurance systems.

Access to Paid Sick Days in Massachusetts by Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Personal Earnings (2011)
By Kevin Miller, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate (Institute for Women’s Policy Research)

This analysis on access to paid sick days for private sector workers, 18 years and older reveals that over half a million workers earning less than $25,000 lack access to a single paid sick day in Massachusetts.

Paid Sick Days in Massachusetts: Containing Health Care Costs through Prevention and Timely Treatment (2009)
By Vicky Lovell, PhD and Kevin Miller, PhD (Institute for Women's Policy Research)

This briefing paper demonstrates that a paid sick days law in Massachusetts would help reduce hospitalizations, the spread of communicable diseases, and health care spending. The paper concludes that Massachusetts can improve health outcomes while containing costs by passing a paid sick leave bill.

Valuing Good Health in Massachusetts: The Costs and Benefits of Paid Sick Days (2009)
By Vicky Lovell, PhD, Kevin Miller, PhD, and Claudia Williams (Institute for Women's Policy Research)

This study reveals that Massachusetts businsesses would save $0.89 per worker per week if a paid sick days law were passed. The study also shows that improved public health will save millions of dollars.

Massachusetts Addendum: A Health Impact Assessment of An Act Establishing Paid Sick Days; SB 688, HB 1815 (2009)
By Jonathan Heller, PhD and Won Kim Cook, PhD, MPH (Human Impact Partners)

This report highlights that having access to paid sick days is associated with fewer emergency room visits and less delayed medical care for family members. The spread of influenza could be reduced through the implementation of a paid sick days standard. Furthermore, children of parents without access to paid sick days face worse health outcomes.

Flaws in the NFIB Methodology Used to Critique the MA PSD Bill (2012)
By the Massachusetts Paid Leave Coalition

Lobbyists for big corporations always claim the sky will fall if workers receive paid sick days - just as they claimed the Family and Medical Leave Act, small increases in the minimum wage and basic worker safety laws would cause massive job losses and impose huge costs on business. 

But real life experience and independent studies have refuted these claims, showing paid sick days not only benefit workers and their families, but also help businesses and the economy.  The NFIB is a corporate lobby that continues to show it is out of touch with business and the economy in Massachusetts. Their estimates wildly exaggerate the costs and ignore well-documented benefits of paid sick days. 

Massachusetts Clergy in Support of Earned Sick Time (April, 2012)
Massachusetts clergy members speak out in support of Earned Sick Time in this letter addressed to to the Massachusetts Legislature.

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RESEARCH FROM OTHER CITIES AND STATES

San Francisco's Paid Sick Leave Ordinance: Outcomes for Employeers and Employees (2011)
By Robert Drago, PhD and Vicky Lovell, PhD (Institute for Women's Policy Research)

This study examines the effect of the first-in-the-nation paid sick days law on employers and employees. Overall, most employers support the law and few report adverse effects. A majority of employees who gained access to paid sick leave under the law report some benefit.

Paid Sick Days Can Help Contain Health Care Costs (2010)
By Kevin Miller, PhD (Institute for Women's Policy Research)

This policy brief summarizes research that shows that paid sick days reduce emergency room use, increase usage of preventative care, and limit the spread of contagious diseases.

Paid Sick Leave Does Not Harm Employment (2010)
By John Petro (Drum Major Institute for Public Policy)

This report analyzes employment data from San Francisco to show that a paid sick days law does not harm employment, and in fact, San Francisco outperformed neighboring counties during the recession.

Paid Sick Days: Attitudes and Experiences (2010)
By Dr. Tom W. Smith and Jibum Kim (National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago)

This public opinion research poll shows that 75 percent of Americans believe that paid sick days are a basic worker's right. Furthermore, 86 percent of Americans support legislation that would guarantee up to seven paid sick days for workers. Voters are also more likely to vote for a candidate who supports paid sick days.

Employers' Perspectives on San Francisco's Paid Sick Leave Policy (2009)
By Shelley Waters Boots, Karin Martinson, and Anna Danziger (Urban Institute)

This report examined how San Francisco's paid sick days law affected a diverse group of 26 employers during the initial implementation period after the ordinance passed. The authors conclude that most employers in their sample were able to implement the law with minimal to moderate effects on their overall business and bottom line.

Responding to Business Lobby Research Produced to Discredit Paid Sick Day Laws (2012)
By Kevin Miller, PhD (Institute for Women's Policy Research)

Business lobbying groups who are opposed to paid sick days (PSD) laws—groups that often oppose most legal worker protections, up to and including the minimum wage and the 40-hour work week—have produced studies purporting to show that the cost of implementing PSD laws would be too high for businesses to absorb without layoffs or other serious consequences. The latest study from the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) regarding a proposed PSD law in Massachusetts is only the latest in a series that the NFIB has published, all of which predict significant job losses in the event that a state or city should pass a PSD law.