Economics B1
Paid Sick and Family Leave
Currently, there is an uprise of concerns over the ability to have paid sick/ family leave time. It’s increasing popularity has been a hot topic for debates since United States is one of the only countries that doesn’t provide this opportunity to it’s employers and employees. Therefore, some companies like Amazon have taken it into their own hands to provide for their employees. So far, it has shown many benefits for the company and may help support the economy.
First of all, we do have a small step in the right direction for paid leave provided by the FMLA which has shown to provide many benefits for people who use it. But, what are these benefits? “According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, about 90% of employers reported that California’s paid family leave policies had either a positive effect or no effect on productivity and profit. Around 96% agreed that it decreased employee turnover and about 99% believed that it boosted employee morale (Penn Wharton University of Pennsylvania). Therefore, the benefits of paid sick/family leave would be tremendous. It would also benefit business instead of hurting them. In return, this helps grow the economy.
Some benefits companies have observed are fewer worker turnovers. This is beneficial because, the process of finding a new employee is very time consuming. You first need to recruit and/or have many applicants. Then, the additional time it takes for them to train in their field or get acclimated to the environment can take even more time. Therefore, by having a temporary substitution and paying someone on leave is much more beneficial. Paid leave would also help women stay in the workforce instead of leaving when wanting to pursue a family. Having a new born child and growing your family should be a moment of pure bliss not anxious nerves of how you will be able to support your family. Therefore, paid leave would be beneficial for many women in the workforce. Especially because many women don’t have a reliable male figure in the household anymore.
https://fairygodboss.com/maternity-leave-resource-center/international-perspective
As you can see America is falling behind for paid sick and family leave. Not very encouraging is it?
Now, imagine going to a restaurant and ordering your favorite mac and cheese...so creamy and delicious. Then later that night you figure out your chef who made the yummy dinner has the flu and was obviously touching your food. According to The New York Times, “Each week about 1.5 million Americans without paid sick leave go to work despite feeling ill.” Which if you think about it, that’s pretty gross. Even worse, the most common jobs where ill employees are likely to attend work because the opportunity cost of not going is too high are hospitals and restaurants. The two easiest places to spread germs and communicable diseases. By providing paid medical leave for employees it is much safer especially for customers and patients in hospitals who are very vulnerable to sickness due to their weakened immune system. A few states that offer paid sick leave to their employees have dramatically reduced flu cases per year. “Flu rates would fall 5 percent if paid sick leave were universal,” (New York Times). Besides, these facts imagine the increased access employee’s would have to doctors with paid work leave. Being able to see a doctor around a work schedule can be extremely difficult. This would help reduce this problem greatly.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/paid-family-medical-leave-in-the-united-states:-good-for-families-good-for-the-economy
Here are the countries that support paid sick leave and those who do not offer it to employees and employers.
Therefore, with the extensive amount of benefits that paid sick/family leave can offer...why shouldn’t we put this law into action? The benefits benefit everyone too, not just the person who stays home because they don’t feel good. This helps the employees, employers, and the economy. The increased support will help reduce worker-turnover, help keep women in the work force, and slow the spread of communicable diseases. The safety and practicality of this law are without a question beneficial. So, c’mon United States make a move on paid sick and family leave.
Works Cited
Denly, Carla. “Paid Family Medical Leave in the United States: Good for Families, Good for the Economy.” UCLA Newsroom, 28 Feb. 2018, newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/paid-family-medical-leave-in-the-united-states:-good-for-families-good-for-the-economy.
“Economic Benefits of Paid Sick and Family Leave.” Penn Wharton Public Policy Initative, publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/2054-economic-benefits-of-paid-sick-and-family-leave.
Frakt, Austin. “The High Costs of Not Offering Paid Sick Leave.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 31 Oct. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/upshot/the-high-costs-of-not-offering-paid-sick-leave.html.
Machicado, Claudia Calderon. “The Business Case for Paid Leave and Paid Sick Days.” Center for American Progress, 20 Aug. 2014, www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2014/04/17/88243/the-business-case-for-paid-leave-and-paid-sick-days/.
That's very interesting that the United States gives no paid leave for being sick. I agree that the United States should make some sort of move involving this topic and us Americans should be able to relax and know we are being payed if we are out for an extended period of time because of a illness. I also didn't know that in some countries they are able to give months of paid leave for a sickness! That surprises me even more that the United States doesn't even give a week. The United States does need to make a move, and it will be interesting how they deal with this in the future.
ReplyDeleteHaving paid leave is a really good thing for the standard American and people all over the United States. We get sick and the people who get really sick can’t afford not going to work helps them pay for the medical bills that they need to cover or yet any bill that they need covered. And I know when I’m going out of my house I’m hoping that I don’t sick from someone else because they can’t afford to not be sick and stay home. I feel like everyone should be able to have paid leave days because if we don’t that’s how people get more sick. We need to have people know that it’s okay and that if they need to take off they can and without having the thought of how they are going to be paid because they missed some days of work.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that the United States is missing out on paid leave. It isn't fair for an employee to get fired for having a baby and is requesting time off, and for that they are laid off. However there is something that has to be thought about, high school students, or lazy employees. This could create a big dilemma in that it promotes someone to stay home watch TV, play video games and just keep recieving the paycheck. I agree with the part of illnesses, and other family reasons but there has to be some proof of expalining why you are gone because it is too easy to fake it.
ReplyDeleteLuke Lochner
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion not having paid maternity leave or paternity leave is a big negative in the US. The most important part of a person’s life is getting to spend the short precious time with their little child while they can. Instead they will always have on their mind, do I need to get back to work? Will we have enough money to support us for the next few months? These are good facts to support getting paid maternity/paternity leave.
I had already know that the U.S. was lacking a little bit in the paid leave category, but I never realized just how badly workers are treated in this respect. The chart about paternity leave blew my mind! I think it's interesting that the U.S. can be considered such an economic powerhouse when it treats its workers poorer than a country that is supposedly less economically developed, like Venezuela or Kenya. Clearly, there are benefits to providing paid leave, both personally and economically, so what is keeping the U.S. from making that change?
ReplyDeleteThe paid leave issue in America is actually quite saddening. Señora Varela was actually talking to our class about this, and how in Chile, the wife gets like 6 months to a year off after giving birth, and it’s paid! It’s insane that the paid time off is so terrible in our country, because we’re wealthy, are very fortunate people, and the reality of this is harsh. While there are definitely loopholes to this, I think it would overall benefit the country and the people who are leaving work for long periods of time to get paid leave. An incentive might need to be installed so they don’t overdo their paid time off period, but I agree that we should integrate more paid leave in the job system.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that I have a job where I do not get paid if I am sick or can not go to work, I definitely agree with your argument. There has been many times that I have felt sick or had a fever and called my boss asking for the day off, but all she said was “You either have to find someone to cover your shift, or you must come in”. In some cases I am able to find a sub, however there has been other times that I have gone to work feeling nauseous and very ill because I do not want to lose my job. Much like you said, this is a huge danger for passing diseases. Also, as you stated, it prevents people from performing to the best of their ability on the job which does not look good to customers. While I do see the side of the argument that some people may call in sick when they are actually not sick, I believe that there is a way that the government could set rules and regulations for companies across America to still be able to provide sick paid leave for employees.
ReplyDeleteHaving paid sick leave is a really hard topic. Should someone really be paid because they are out for two days with the flu? Although money is important, it’s not always about that but rather how you leave all your work on everyone else. Working in a hospital I see it all the time, and if someone calls in it messes everything up. Everyone else does double the work they would have to do if that employee hadn’t called in. Yes people go to work sick, but paying them to stay at home is not going to change that. There are also points to be made that you call in sick claiming you have the flu but who knows if you actually do, maybe you just didn’t want to go to work but you know that you’ll still get paid. Having things available such as the FMLA is nice in order to be able to help out sick family members or even if the employee themselves get very ill and need to take a leave of absence it is nice to have this in order to ensure a job but also get better themselves.
ReplyDeleteTaylor, you make some very good points. If we end up paying people to stay home from work, won't that encourage more people to stay home? Overtime, this could lead to people not attending their job because they can get payed to stay home. I know my dad's job has payed sick days that he can take throughout the year. Once they are used up, the days he is sick are no longer payed for. This is a good way to regulate how many times people are allowed to have a payed sick day and limit the people who stay home from work to avoid doing their job. On the other hand, having payed sick days prevents people from passing on the sickness to coworkers or customers. Also with payed sick days, you can encourage them to work from home and lower the number of days they are out of work because they have time to get better. By doing this, we have a more efficient economy because we are using more of our reosurces (in this case people) to get the job done faster.
DeleteI plan to in the future get a career and the paid leave idea is a great way to help people who obviously can't work and can't maintain a income to still be able to help heal themselves even faster with paid leave instead of having to take the money out of their own savings to pay for treatment. When we talk about the employees attitude toward the company not having paid leave I would personally not like that and that may result in me leaving the company to find a better place to work or not putting in my full effort into the job I do because I know if I get sick the company will not help me at all and it just seems like they don't care about the employee's emotional standings and they care about you working. Which gets me to realize if they need you to work it makes sense to have paid leave to ultimately speed up the healing process and then have the employee be happy when they come back to work
ReplyDeleteAlthough I feel it is imperative for employers to provide paid maternity/paternity leave, I disagree in the implementation of paid sick leave. Paid family leave is necessary as couples shouldn't fear growing a family due to consequences they may face financially or with their employers if they take this personal time. However, I believe it is unreasonable to provide paid sick time for every working individual within the country. It can be assumed that almost every worker will come down with some version of a common cold, flu, etc. at least once throughout the year. Often these illnesses arise without notice, and employers are left with holes where that worker was scheduled. Because there is less people working for those 1-2 days a worker is out sick, the place of employment will suffer, especially if that loss is multiplied by every employee who gets the common cold. I agree that it is uncleanly to be in food preparation, cleaning services, etc. if you are sick, yet there are alternate solutions to this issue that I feel are more realistic and will cause less loss to a company. Employers should implement strict health policies, such as handwashing at work, the use of masks when sick, and wiping down your workspace. By taking these steps, employers could reduce contamination in the workplace and spread of illness, while maintaining profits. If individuals took paid sick leave, there would be difficulty finding a replacement in such short notice, and the company would suffer. Thus, alternate solutions should be implemented to minimize sickness rather than providing paid leave.
ReplyDeleteI do not really agree that work should offer payed sick day, but payed maternity leave is definitely necessary. Caring for a new born takes a lot of energy and money. If you are not able to work because you have a baby, how are you supposed to support your child? But sickness is a different story. If you are sick and you are home from work, they should not pay you because you will usually not be out for as long as someone who is on maternity leave. Of course, if you have some severe health problems that will be happening keep you from working for a long time and is very expensive such a cancer treatments, you might need to have some payed sick time. Mainly though, if you have the flu or are only going to be out of work for a week or so, payed sick time will not be necessary in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Memes
ReplyDeleteI, being someone who works in the restaurant industry, can personally attest that when I am feeling under the weather, I find it hard to call in sick when I know I need to work that day. Of course, for those that need their jobs much more than I do will do this a lot more frequently as missing a day at work is a severe loss for someone who needs that money, such as to pay for college or support a family. I have to agree that even paid sick leave is important because no company wants to be blamed for the dissatisfaction and sickness of a customer because ultimately that will decrease the profit of the company, so it would be beneficial for the company to give paid sick leave. For long term, severe diseases this should especially be the case to pay for medical bills but this is needed even for small colds, it should simply be the case that they are given 2-4 days of paid sick leave for small colds and if they need any more time they should show proof from their doctor, otherwise the rest will be unpaid as to eliminate employees who may take advantage of this opportunity. I also like how you pointed out how this affects women. We always talk about gaining equality, and this will really give women the boost they need to get into the workforce as their needs are different to men, and carrying and caring for a child is costly but also requires time. By giving paid maternity leave, employees only have to search temporarily and do not need to dispense time and resources into recruiting new employees when they have perfectly suitable ones who will simply be out for a time. This way, women don't have to make the hard choice of choosing a family or a career. Therefore, paid leave in many aspects is highly beneficial.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this, I feel as if it would be very beneficial to many people in the workforce. This will help people if there is a family emergency or a medical emergency as well. Although this may help many people, some may take advantage of this opportunity. If this were to ever happen there would have to be rules to go along with is to make sure people don't use this opportunity in the wrong way. Overall this would be a good opportunity for people because if something last minute comes up with actual importance and is actually an emergency, people will be able to take off and not worry about having to put their income before their family or health.
ReplyDeleteI disagree that it's the governments responsibility to mandate that business provide paid sick/family leave to employees. I think it should be up to the individual business whether or not they offer paid leave to employees. I believe this because mandating that all business provide paid leave for employees seems to create a form of price floor on the cost of employing a person. When a business hires a new person, paid leave is an added cost of that hire that is required. This could make them hire less employees and therefore less people have jobs. Businesses have less demand for employees because employees cost more and therefore there is a form of "dead weight loss" with this government mandate. A small business would find it particularly problematic to afford this cost increase of their employees because their profit margins are already low. Under a mandate that requires businesses to pay more for their employees, what if they discriminate against hiring women because they could get pregnant and it could cost the business more to offer them paid leave? Then the government would have to intervene again in how people decide to run their businesses after already intervening. As for people's sickness contaminating product, isn't it the business' responsibility to control the quality of their product? If offering employees paid leave drastically increased the quality of their product, why wouldn't they already? Would the government now have to spend a massive amount of taxpayer money policing businesses to make sure sick people are not coming into the office each day?
ReplyDeleteUnemployment is extraordinarily low and the economy strong. As an employee, you have tons of options where you want to work because businesses are forced to pay you more and give you better benefits. Businesses are already forced to offer the employee greater benefits to attract employees. Pick a company that offers paid leave if that's what matters most to you. Employees have the upper hand in today's job market and they should use it. If one company doesn't give you what you want, that doesn't mean another won't. Competition is what ultimately solves this problem and decreasing competition makes this problem grow bigger.
As someone who works in a Deli I can tell you sick people and people with serious conditions won't take off work even though they are ill . But they don't have much choice as my company doesn't offer sick leave. I agree with you that the government should intervene in mandating maternity leave and sick leave because it would help workers. I like how you talked about how employers approve of these benefits because that is the main argument against paid leave is that it would hurt employers. Another comment mentioned how competition will ultimately solve the problem but that is not entirely true that even with a strong economy the U.S. worker's wages have remained stagnant as productivity decreases. As mentioned in Anika's paper, employers are fine with providing it so the government should require it.The opportunity cost of helping these workers is worth the small amount of dead weight loss of raising the 'price' of employment.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is very true and the mindset many people have is if I'm not going to be paid this week, I may as well just tough it out. But paid leave would keep our work space safer and further away from sickness. This could help keep our population healthier and ultimately make our businesses more productive as there will be less sickness in the office. But on the other hand, this could cause many more people to skip work and call in sick if they are feeling lazy or just don't want to go. This would end up causing businesses to lose money and could have bad effects overall. I believe that although this could help prevent ore sickness it could also cause businesses to lose substantial amounts of money.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. I think it's rather bizarre that the US, a world leader, does not offer sick leave. I think that it would significantly benefit the work force and increase productivity. From the article it seems that the implementation would not only benefit the workforce and the employee, but also the consumer, who is at risk when producers are ill, and also the company, who would have to find new employees which has a greater opportunity cost that paying a worker on leave has cost. Not only does this have economic impact, but also a social impact about reducing stigma around mothers who are forced to leave the work force when they decide to pursue a family, as well as a father's willingness to pursue family actions such as taking paternity leave. Overall, I agree; paid sick and family leave would be very beneficial to the US as a whole.
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