Currently 57% of Vermont’s private-sector employers offer NO paid sick days to their workers, leaving over 106,000 Vermonters without paid sick leave. Workers are forced to choose between paying the bills and taking time off to care for their and their family’s health because they do not have paid sick leave. Nationally 47% of workers in the private sector are not guaranteed paid sick leave, putting the U.S. behind 139 other countries that provide this basic right to all workers.
The lack of sick leave forces people to attend work when they are ill or neglect to take care of sick family members because otherwise they will suffer economic costs from missed work and even risk being reprimanded at work. When people show-up for work sick they harm themselves while presenting a risk to their coworkers and the public through the spread of contagions. When workers cannot recuperate from illness their productivity and ability to work declines, which hurts both the employee and the employer.
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