Health bill covers California sick leave
A new health bill would help give mandated sick leave to the 40 percent of California employees without it. Health groups say focusing on prevention of illness could help lower health care costs. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.
Stethoscope lying on money (iStockPhoto)
TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: California's always trying to shake things up. And I don't mean with earthquakes. The state's latest cause: sick leave for workers. Right now, 40 percent of California employees have no sick time. But a new bill would give everybody some days. Ashley Milne-Tyte has more.
Ashley Milne-Tyte: The health groups say that mandating paid sick leave would mean better health for all Californians.
Jonathan Heller runs Human Impact Partners. He says employees without paid sick leave include many restaurant workers and nursing home staff. People with ample opportunity to infect others.
Jonathan Heller: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, documented that a restaurant worker in Michigan who did not have paid sick days infected 500 people with stomach flu in 2006 when he went to work sick.
Heller says the U.S. could lower health care costs if it focused more on preventing illnesses from getting worse. And sick leave is a key part of that.
Marti Fisher is with the California Chamber of Commerce. She says it's not always easy for employers to do the right thing.
Marti Fisher: There's only a certain amount of money in the business, and employers have to make difficult choices. And this isn't always an option.
She says if the bill became law employers might have to cut back on workers' hours or pay.
I'm Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
Comments
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From PA, 07/31/2008
Of course worker's hourly pay will have to go down to pay for the cost of sick time; it is a tradeoff, but one that will involuntarily give workers the availability of paid time off to take care of themselves (or sick kids) when it is most needed. Sick time always brings its abuses, too (I'm an ER doctor that sees far too many people that aren't sick just to 'get a doctor's note', but also lots of sick people who can't afford to be off work).
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