Paid leave isn’t only crucial for ensuring parents can care for their children – it’s also important for adult children, an increasing number of whom are caring for an elderly relative. But while having time to care for a loved one is important to nearly all of us, not everyone can do it without risking part of their paycheck or even their job.
For example, when parents can’t take a paid sick day, children are less likely to go to the doctor and more likely to go to school sick. But a 2003-2004 study indicated that only 36% of American children in families below 200% of the federal poverty line had a parent with sick leave, compared with 81% of those above 200% of the poverty line.
At the other end of the age spectrum, this 2008 study shows nearly 1 in 5 American workers provided unpaid care to an elderly person that year, and more than 4 in 10 provided care in the previous five years. But low-income families living from paycheck-to-paycheck are the least likely to have paid sick days available on the job. In the U.S., just 2 in 10 of the lowest paid workers had access to paid sick leave in 2010, compared to 84% of the highest earners.
Given their importance to so many people, it’s no surprise to see so many people “raise their hands” for a minimum paid sick days standard. A 2008 poll from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found:
- 94 percent of self-identified liberals and 81 percent of self-identified conservatives believed that paid sick day should be a basic workplace right.
- 86 percent of people surveyed said they favor a basic paid sick day policy.
- 77 percent of respondents believed that paid sick days were very important.
- 63 percent of workers who did not have access to paid sick leave said they were concerned about not having paid sick days.
- 46 percent of respondents said they are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports paid sick days.
Filed under: paid sick days, work and family, National Opinion Research Center, paid sick days, paid sick leave, Seattle, Sick leave, united states, Washington
The chart on the right compares four big English-speaking countries on a single measure: vocabulary test scores of five-year-olds. You’d expect that children of highly educated parents would do well and children of poorly educated parents would do badly. And you’d be right. On average, the children of poorly educated parents have both genetic and environmental disadvantages, so it’s no surprise that they do worse than average.
