Survey Reveals Most U.S. Adults Support Paid Sick Time Requirements
Eight in 10 (80 percent) U.S. adults are in favor of requiring some or all employers to provide paid sick time to their employees, and similar numbers (78 percent) say employers who don't give their employees paid sick time pay for it in other ways, according to the latest Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Healthcare Poll. However, just over half (52 percent) of adults agree that requiring smaller employers to provide paid sick time would have a negative impact on their business and less than a quarter (23 percent) agree that their employer does not offer enough sick time for its employees.
These are some of the results of an online survey of 2,733 U.S. adults, ages 18 and older, conducted by Harris Interactive(R) between January 25 and 29, 2007 for The Wall Street Journal Online's Health Industry Edition.
There are no federal requirements that require employers to provide paid sick time to employees, but legislators have been seeking to change that. San Francisco recently passed a law requiring employers to provide paid sick time based on the number of hours employees work. Democrats in Congress have proposed a measure to require minimum paid sick time for all employees.
Compared to part-time employees, full-time employees are three times as likely to have paid sick time (24 percent vs. 77 percent, respectively). A majority (58 percent) of employees who lack paid sick time say they cannot afford to take time off work when they are sick, and more than a third (36 percent) of these workers worry that taking time off when they are sick will jeopardize their jobs. However, 28 percent of those who have paid sick time also say that they cannot afford to take time off, and the same percentage (28 percent) worry that taking sick time will jeopardize their jobs.
The debate about such requirements often focuses on the question of whether or not this will impact smaller businesses' ability to be competitive. The public is divided on this issue in part, perhaps, because the majority believes that employers pay in one form or another when their employees are sick through loss of productivity, longer term illnesses and workplace accidents.
Reprinted with permission. © CCH
<p>Eight in 10 (80 percent) U.S. adults are in favor of requiring some or all employers to provide paid sick time to their employees, and similar numbers (78 percent) say employers who don't give their employees paid sick time pay for it in other ways, according to the latest Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Healthcare Poll.</p>
Survey Reveals Most U.S. Adults Support Paid Sick Time Requirements
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