Buck up, sicko

As many as 43% of American workers in private industry don't have paid sick days, according to 2007 data from the federal government. If they call in sick, they lose their pay and, sometimes, their jobs.

That number has risen over the years, part of a larger trend to cut back on sick leave. Among workers who do still have the once-venerable benefit, many have found their days reduced or lumped together as part of their vacation time. The United States -- unique among industrialized countries -- doesn't mandate a minimal number of paid sick days for workers.

"Sick time is changing," says Kim Stattner, an expert on absence management for Hewitt Associates, an international company that provides human resources programs and consulting. "The practices and designs are not as generous as they once were."

As employers cut back, however, lawmakers are stepping in, with the support of labor organizations and health officials. In May, legislation cleared the California Assembly that would allow workers to earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. The bill, called Healthy Families, Healthy Workplaces (AB 2716), has been sent to the Senate, where its prospects for passage are considered fair.

As many as 10 other states are also pondering paid-sick-day laws, including Ohio, where residents will likely vote in November on a ballot initiative requiring a minimum number of paid sick days.

Two cities, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have already enacted legislation. In San Francisco, full-time, part-time and temporary workers earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, assuming they have been on the job for at least three months. Workers at companies with fewer than 10 employees can accumulate up to five days per year, and workers for companies with 10 or more workers can accumulate up to nine days. The Washington, D.C., law requires workers to be on the job for one year before becoming eligible for paid sick leave. Workers can earn three to seven days depending on the size of their company and whether they work full or part time.

About 135 developed countries have laws requiring private and public employers to provide paid sick leave to full-time employees. In the United States, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) have introduced a bill, the Healthy Families Act, that would require businesses with 15 or more employees to give workers at least seven paid sick days per year.

"The public supports it," says Ruth Milkman, a professor of sociology at UCLA and director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. who has studied the proposed laws. "In San Francisco, the law was so popular that the people who were opposed to it didn't even mount a challenge. Paid sick time is a human need that is self-evident."

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A worker's struggle

Kathleen Martinez, 43, is typical of the kind of worker who is most likely to lack paid sick days. The Antioch, Calif., woman works part-time at two low-paying jobs, one as a pizza cook at a grocery store and another at a restaurant. Neither job provides paid sick days and one employer gives her "negative points" for being out sick. If she accrues too many negative points, she says, she'll get fired.

Martinez was fired from her last job because she took all five of her allotted paid sick days plus some unpaid days when her daughter had recurrent ear infections and required surgery to insert ear tubes. She is a single parent and also cares for her mother, who has heart and lung diseases, and her grandmother, 87.

She says she can't afford to lose another job: "I go to work when I have the flu. My bones can be aching, but I am so worried about getting negative points."

Martinez recently discovered she has gynecological cancer, however, and will take a month off to recover from surgery, scheduled for today. Even if she doesn't lose her jobs, she worries about the loss in pay.

"I rob Peter to pay Paul," she says. "Whenever I'm sick or my daughter or relatives are sick, it takes me a couple of months to catch up with the bills."