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Contagion Nation: A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries

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Listed:
  • Jody Heymann
  • Hye Jin Rho
  • John Schmitt
  • Alison Earle

Abstract

This report finds that the U.S. is the only country among 22 countries ranked highly in terms of economic and human development that does not guarantee that workers receive paid sick days or paid sick leave. Under current U.S. labor law, employers are not required to provide short-term paid sick days or longer-term paid sick leave. By relying solely on voluntary employer policies to provide paid sick days or leave to employees, tens of millions of U.S. workers are without paid sick days or leave. As a result, each year millions of American workers go to work sick, lowering productivity and potentially spreading illness to their coworkers and customers.

Suggested Citation

  • Jody Heymann & Hye Jin Rho & John Schmitt & Alison Earle, 2009. "Contagion Nation: A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2009-19, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    • Handle: RePEc:epo:papers:2009-19
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    File URL: http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/paid-sick-days-2009-05.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Skatun, John Douglas, 2003. "Take some days off, why don't you?: Endogenous sick leave and pay," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 379-402, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ahn, Thomas & Yelowitz, Aaron, 2016. "Paid Sick Leave and Absenteeism: The First Evidence from the U.S," MPRA Paper 69794, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Pichler, Stefan & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2017. "The pros and cons of sick pay schemes: Testing for contagious presenteeism and noncontagious absenteeism behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 14-33.
    3. Stefan Pichler & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2015. "The Pros and Cons of Sick Pay Schemes: Testing for Contagious Presenteeism and Shirking Behavior," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1509, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Mommaerts, Corina & Raza, Syed Hassan & Zheng, Yu, 2020. "The economic consequences of hospitalizations for older workers across countries," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    5. Kaitlin Piper & Ada Youk & A Everette James III & Supriya Kumar, 2017. "Paid sick days and stay-at-home behavior for influenza," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-13, February.
    6. Laszlo Goerke, 2017. "Sick pay reforms and health status in a unionised labour market," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 64(2), pages 115-142, May.
    7. Pichler, Stefan & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2015. "The Pros and Cons of Sick Pay Schemes: A Method to Test for Contagious Presenteeism and Shirking Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 8850, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Carlo Alberto Biscardo & Alessandro Bucciol & Paolo Pertile, 2015. "Who should monitor job sick leave?," Working Papers 18/2015, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    9. Bauernschuster, Stefan & Duersch, Peter & Oechssler, Jörg & Vadovic, Radovan, 2010. "Mandatory sick pay provision: A labor market experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 870-877, December.
    10. Andrea M. Mühlenweg & Franz G. Westermaier & Brant Morefield, 2016. "Parental health and child behavior: evidence from parental health shocks," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 577-598, September.
    11. Veliziotis, Michail, 2010. "Unionization and sickness absence from work in the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2010-15, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    12. Carlo Alberto Biscardo & Alessandro Bucciol & Paolo Pertile, 2019. "Job sick leave: Detecting opportunistic behavior," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 373-386, March.
    13. Laszlo Goerke, 2016. "Sick Pay Reforms and Health Status in a Unionised Labour Market," IAAEG Discussion Papers until 2011 201604, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    14. Nicolas R. Ziebarth & Martin Karlsson, 2014. "The Effects Of Expanding The Generosity Of The Statutory Sickness Insurance System," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 208-230, March.
    15. Brayan V. Seixas & James Macinko, 2020. "Unavailability of paid sick leave among parents is a barrier for children's utilization of nonemergency health services: Evidence from the National Health Interview Survey," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(5), pages 1083-1097, September.
    16. Okechukwu, Cassandra A. & Kelly, Erin L. & Bacic, Janine & DePasquale, Nicole & Hurtado, David & Kossek, Ellen & Sembajwe, Grace, 2016. "Supporting employees' work-family needs improves health care quality: Longitudinal evidence from long-term care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 111-119.
    17. Martin Halla & Susanne Pech & Martina Zweimüller, 2017. "The effect of statutory sick-pay on workers' labor supply and subsequent health," Working Papers 2017-04, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    18. Stefan Pichler & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2020. "Labor Market Effects of U.S. Sick Pay Mandates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 55(2), pages 611-659.
    19. Pierre Koning, 2016. "Privatizing sick pay: Does it work?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 324-324, December.
    20. Daniel Kim, 2017. "Paid Sick Leave and Risks of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality among Adult Workers in the USA," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-10, October.
    21. Schroyen, Fred & Aarbu, Karl Ove, 2017. "Attitudes towards large income risk in welfare states: an international comparison," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 20/2017, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    22. Pichler, Stefan & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2019. "Reprint of: The pros and cons of sick pay schemes: Testing for contagious presenteeism and noncontagious absenteeism behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 86-104.
    23. Stearns, Jenna & White, Corey, 2018. "Can paid sick leave mandates reduce leave-taking?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 227-246.
    24. Helene Jorgensen & Eileen Appelbaum, 2014. "Documenting the Need for a National Paid Family and Medical Leave Program: Evidence from the 2012 FMLA Survey," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2014-10, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    25. Joanna Gaitens & Marian Condon & Eseosa Fernandes & Melissa McDiarmid, 2021. "COVID-19 and Essential Workers: A Narrative Review of Health Outcomes and Moral Injury," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-18, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    paid time off; paid sick leave; productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth
    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries
    • I - Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H - Public Economics
    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health

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