Mary Altaffer/AP Photo
Millions of workers whose jobs are essential in this crisis continue to go to work without basic paid sick leave protections.
Since the COVID-19 crisis began, Congress has had three chances to urgently pass universal and permanent paid sick leave to keep all of us safe. Now once again, Congress is on track to abandon millions of workers by leaving paid sick leave out of a fourth coronavirus response bill.
Millions of workers whose jobs are essential in this crisis—grocery workers, first responders, Amazon warehouse workers, medical staff, delivery drivers, cooks, and social workers among them—continue to go through this pandemic without the government guaranteeing basic paid sick leave protections. They are risking their lives, and ours, to go to work every day. And those who can’t afford to pass up a paycheck will inadvertently continue to spread diseases like COVID-19.
That has to change. If small businesses and big corporations want taxpayers to bail them out, then basic protections for workers to stop the spread of COVID-19 and future illnesses must be part of the deal.
Here’s where our elected leaders have fallen short. Congress’s recent legislation addressing sick leave, and the Trump administration’s rollback of it, abandons up to 75 percent of the workforce, including the Amazon workers packing our supplies, the grocery store clerks stocking our shelves with food, and even some of the health care workers supporting us in this crisis.
For those who do have access to paid sick leave under these provisions, it is not nearly comprehensive enough. Right now, paid sick leave requirements are limited to those suffering with COVID-19, and don’t include companies with more than 500 employees. Some small businesses and health care providers can be exempted. Some large companies only provide paid leave to employees who are under direct quarantine orders or who have tested positive for the coronavirus, despite the fact that millions across the country are clearly symptomatic yet unable to access tests. Other big corporations continue to provide no paid leave. As a result, people who are likely contagious are forced to continue working every day.
Seventy-nine percent of all voters and 63 percent of Republicans now support permanent and universal paid sick leave, and it’s time for politicians to listen.
Paid sick leave should not be dependent upon a positive coronavirus test when testing is difficult to obtain. It is imperative for our collective safety that people are able to take time off work for any illness and rest at home. Our hospitals are already overloaded with an influx of COVID-19 cases, and we cannot afford to spread other illnesses—like the flu—that could overwhelm our hospitals further.
Voters in red and blue states alike have made it clear they want action. We’ve seen it in our work at The Fairness Project, as we’ve delivered paid sick leave for more than three million people through ballot measures in cities and states around the country. Recent polling only underscores the point. Seventy-nine percent of all voters and 63 percent of Republicans now support permanent and universal paid sick leave, and it’s time for politicians to listen.
COVID-19 threatens us in unprecedented ways, and without paid sick leave everywhere for everyone, we are all at risk.
Millions of people cross our state borders every day. A truck driver who lives in New Hampshire without paid sick leave might drive on their route to New York or Pennsylvania and unknowingly carry the virus with them. We will not slow the spread of COVID-19 if workers in only some states have paid sick leave, and at this moment only Congress can ensure that workers in all 50 states do.
We have no idea how long the COVID-19 crisis will last, but as of now, even the limited support Congress is offering will end in December. What will happen after that? What will happen when the next pandemic hits our shores?
It could be 18 months until we have a vaccine, and even longer until we establish herd immunity. If the solutions Congress is offering have cutoff dates, then they are not enough to protect us from what’s to come.
COVID-19 did not create our need for universal and permanent paid sick leave. We are scrambling in a moment of crisis to put these most basic and commonsense policies in place because we have ignored workers across this country for decades. But even amid this crisis, Congress has repeatedly failed to provide what we desperately need to overcome COVID-19—now, and in the long term.
Fortunately, the legislative battle is not over, as we expect Congress to take up another COVID-19 bill soon. Time is running out, though, and it is clear that our leaders in Washington must pass universal and permanent paid sick leave in the next relief package to prevent the virus from spreading.
We can emerge from the COVID-19 crisis as a stronger nation with universal and permanent protections for everyone. But we must act now. Lives are depending on it.
