Sec. 2. Findings

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Congress makes the following findings: Working Americans need time to meet their own health care needs and to care for family members, including their children, spouse, domestic partner, parents (including parents-in-law), and other children and adults for whom they are caregivers. Health care needs include preventive health care, diagnostic procedures, medical treatment, and recovery in response to short- and long-term illnesses and injuries. Providing employees time off to meet health care needs ensures that they will be healthier in the long run.

Preventive care helps avoid illnesses and injuries and routine medical care helps detect illnesses early and shorten their duration. A 2012 study published by BioMed Central Public Health of results of the National Health Interview Survey found that lack of paid sick leave is a barrier to receiving cancer screenings and preventive care. Workers with paid sick leave were more likely to have a mammogram, Pap test, or endoscopy, and were more likely to have visited a doctor in the previous year, than workers without paid sick leave, even when the results were adjusted for sociodemographic factors.

When parents are available to care for their children who become sick, children recover faster, more serious illnesses are prevented, and children’s overall mental and physical health improve. In a 2009 study published in the American Journal of Public Health, 81 percent of parents of a child with special health care needs reported that taking leave from work to be with their child had a good or very good effect on their child’s physical health. Similarly, 85 percent of parents of such a child found that taking such leave had a good or very good effect on their child’s emotional health.

When parents cannot afford to miss work and must send children with contagious illnesses to child care centers or schools, infection can spread rapidly through child care centers and schools. Providing paid sick time improves public health by reducing infectious disease. Policies that make it easier for sick adults and children to be isolated at home reduce the spread of infectious disease. A 2012 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that a lack of workplace policies like paid sick days contributed to an additional 5,000,000 cases of influenza-like illness during the H1N1 pandemic of 2009.

Routine medical care reduces medical costs by detecting and treating illness and injury early, decreasing the need for emergency care. These savings benefit public and private payers of health insurance, including private businesses. A 2011 study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that a universal paid sick days policy would reduce preventable visits to the emergency room and result in cost savings of $1,100,000,000 per year, including $500,000,000 in savings for public health insurance like Medicaid.

The provision of individual and family sick time by large and small businesses, both here in the United States and elsewhere, demonstrates that policy solutions are both feasible and affordable in a competitive economy. A 2009 study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that, of 22 countries with comparable economies, the United States was 1 of only 3 countries that did not provide any paid time off for workers with short-term illnesses. Measures that ensure that employees are in good health and do not need to worry about unmet family health problems help businesses by promoting productivity and reducing employee turnover.

The American Productivity Audit completed in 2003 found that lost productivity due to illness costs $226,000,000,000 annually, and that 71 percent of that cost stems from presenteeism, the practice of employees coming to work despite illness. Studies in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the Employee Benefit News, and the Harvard Business Review show that presenteeism is a larger productivity drain than either absenteeism or short-term disability. Working while sick also increases a worker's probability of suffering an injury on the job.

A 2012 study published by the American Journal of Public Health found that workers with access to paid sick leave were 28 percent less likely than workers without paid sick leave to suffer nonfatal occupational injuries. The absence of paid sick time has forced Americans to make untenable choices between needed income and jobs on the one hand and caring for their own and their family’s health on the other. Nearly 40 percent of the private sector workforce, and 25 percent of the public sector workforce, lacks paid sick time.

Another 4,000,000 theoretically have access to sick time, but have not been on the job long enough to use it. Millions more lack sick time they can use to care for a sick child or ill family member. Workers’ access to paid sick time varies dramatically by wage level. For private sector workers— for workers in the lowest quartile of earners, 71 percent lack paid sick time; for workers in the next 2 quartiles, 36 and 25 percent, respectively, lack paid sick time; and even for workers in the highest quartile, 16 percent lack paid sick time.

For public sector workers— for workers in the lowest quartile of earners, 25 percent lack paid sick time; for workers in the next 2 quartiles, 7 percent lack paid sick time; and for workers in the highest quartile, 2 percent lack paid sick time. In addition, millions of workers cannot use paid sick time to care for ill family members. Due to the roles of men and women in society, the primary responsibility for family caregiving often falls on women, and such responsibility affects the working lives of women more than it affects the working lives of men.

An increasing number of men are also taking on caregiving obligations, and men who request paid time for caregiving purposes are often denied accommodation or penalized because of stereotypes that caregiving is only women’s work . Employers’ reliance on persistent stereotypes about the proper roles of both men and women in the workplace and in the home continues a cycle of discrimination and fosters stereotypical views about women's commitment to work and their value as employees.

Employment standards that apply to only one gender have serious potential for encouraging employers to discriminate against employees and applicants for employment who are of that gender. It is in the national interest to ensure that all Americans can care for their own health and the health of their families while prospering at work. Nearly 1 in 3 American women report physical or sexual abuse by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. Domestic violence also affects men.

Women account for about 85 percent of the victims of domestic violence and men account for approximately 15 percent of the victims. Therefore, women disproportionately need time off to care for their health or to find solutions, such as obtaining a restraining order or finding housing, to avoid or prevent physical or sexual abuse. One study showed that 85 percent of domestic violence victims at a women’s shelter who were employed missed work because of abuse. The mean number of days of paid work lost by a rape victim is 8.1 days, by a victim of physical assault is 7.2 days, and by a victim of stalking is 10.1 days.

Nationwide, domestic violence victims lose almost 8,000,000 days of paid work per year. Without paid sick days that can be used to address the effects of domestic violence, these victims are in grave danger of losing their jobs. One survey found that 96 percent of employed domestic violence victims experienced problems at work related to the violence. The Government Accountability Office similarly found that 24 to 52 percent of victims report losing a job due, at least in part, to domestic violence.

The loss of employment can be particularly devastating for victims of domestic violence, who often need economic security to ensure safety. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that domestic violence costs over $700,000,000 annually due to the victims’ lost productivity in employment. Efforts to assist abused employees result in positive outcomes for employers as well as employees because employers can retain workers who might otherwise be compelled to leave.