• Did you know that North Carolina workers have no right to sick days?

• Did you know that a worker can be fired for missing work to care for their sick child or elderly parent?

• Did you know that no federal law requires sick leave?

Everybody gets sick but not everybody has a chance to get better.  That’s because nearly half of North Carolina’s workers lack paid sick days.  Workers should not have to choose between taking care of themselves or a loved one and losing a day’s pay (or worse, their job) if they’re sick.   Guaranteeing all workers a basic amount of paid sick days improves public health, supports family economic security, and makes good business sense. 

Four reasons to support the Paid Sick Days legislation:

1.  Paid sick days enhance public health. 
When employees go to work sick, their germs become our germs.  Hundreds of thousands of North Carolina employees without sick days work in the food service, health care, and retail sectors.  They prepare our food, sell our groceries, and care for the sick and elderly.  Infectious illness is particularly harmful in institutional settings like schools and nursing homes, where vulnerable populations are in close contact.
•    78% of employees working in food service and accommodations lack paid sick days.
•    According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 50% of norovirus outbreaks are caused by ill food service workers.

2.    Paid sick days support economic security.
For too many workers, losing a day's pay (or even a job) is as easy as catching a cold.  Missing a day’s pay to take a child to the doctor could mean missing a mortgage payment or falling deeper into debt.  Especially in these economic times, just a few paid sick days a year can provide working families a much-needed measure of economic security.
•    77% of low-wage earners—those who can least afford missed pay—lack paid sick days.
•    One in six workers reports they or a family member have been fired, suspended, or disciplined because of missing work due to illness.

3.    Paid sick days are smart business.
By allowing employees to earn paid sick time, employers can increase productivity at the workplace and save money in the long run.  Employees who come to work sick are less productive and recover slower.  They’re also likely to get their co-workers sick, which reduces productivity and increases absenteeism.  Paid sick days help retain good employees and keep turnover costs low.
•    The savings from providing paid sick days outweigh the costs by over $3.50 per employee hour.
•    Presenteeism (the practice of employees coming to work sick) costs employers $180 billion annually—considerably more than the cost of absenteeism.

4.  Paid sick days have overwhelming public support.
North Carolinians strongly believe that every worker should be guaranteed a minimum number of paid sick days.  And across the country, dozens of polls have confirmed that there is strong public support for paid sick days.  Consider just two examples:
•    Here in North Carolina: a poll conducted by AARP North Carolina found that 79% of respondents said employers should be required to provide a minimum number of paid sick days for full-time employees.  For more results and to see the full AARP survey, click here.
•    Nationally, a poll conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found that 77% of American workers support paid sick days and that one in six say they or a family member have been fired, suspended, punished, or threatened by an employer due to illness.  For complete study, click here.