Product Code Database
Sick leave (or paid sick days or sick pay) is paid time off from employment that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sick leave is intended for health-related purposes. Sick leave can include a mental health day and taking time away from work to go to a scheduled doctor's appointment. Some policies also allow paid sick time to be used to care for sick family members, or to address health and safety needs related to domestic violence or sexual assault. Menstrual leave is another type of time off work for a health-related reason, but it is not always paid.
In most nations, some or all employers are required to pay their employees for some time away from work when they are ill. Most European, many Latin American, a few African, and a few Asian countries have legal requirements for paid sick leave for employees. In nations without laws mandating paid sick leave, some offer it voluntarily or as the result of a collective bargaining agreement. However, in countries with poorer labor laws such as South Korea, employees are usually forced to use paid vacation time for sick leaves, and the sick leaves exceeding the remaining vacation time are unpaid.
Even where sick leave is normally required for all employees, the business owner may not be considered an employee or have access to paid sick leave, especially in a microbusiness that is Owner-operator.
Paid sick leave can reduce employee turnover, increase productivity, and reduce the spread of disease in the workplace and in the community.Vicky Lovell, Institute for Women's Policy Research, Valuing Good Health: An Estimate of Costs and Savings for the Healthy Families Act , 2005.
Workers without paid sick leave will go to work while sick, spreading the infections to other workers. Nearly seven in ten U.S. workers (68 percent) report they have gone to work with the Gastroenteritis or other contagious disease.Smith, Paid Sick Days. Nearly half reported that they went to work sick because they could not afford to lose the pay.NPR/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health, Health Care and the Economy in Two Swing States: A Look at Ohio and Florida, July 2008 Thirty percent of workers report they contracted the flu from a colleague.National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, Flu in the Workplace: Key Facts & Figures . According to a 2020 study, requiring paid sick leave in Washington state led to a reduction in the number of workers who reported working while sick.
In 2010, a Sampling bias survey of some New York City employers by the Partnership for New York City estimated that introducing a new paid sick leave mandate, in which employees of small businesses would get a minimum of five days paid sick leave per year and employees of large businesses would get a minimum of nine days paid sick leave per year, would increase total payroll expenses in the city by 0.3%, with the burden largely falling on the fraction of businesses that did not already pay for any sick leave, or that offered sick leave only to long-time employees. The total cost of providing paid sick leave in that high-cost market was estimated to be around 40 or 50 cents per hour worked.
Presenteeism costs the U.S. economy $180 billion annually in lost productivity. For employers, this costs an average of $255 per employee per year and exceeds the cost of absenteeism and medical and disability benefits.Ron Goetzal et al. "Health Absence, Disability, and Presenteeism Cost Estimates", Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, April 2004. For workers in the foodservice industry, one analysis found that foodborne illness outbreak for a chain restaurantincluding negative public opinion, which affects other operations in a metropolitan areacan be up to $7million.Norman G. Marriott, Principles of Food Sanitation, 1999.
In most of those States, some law, collective agreement, or employer choice may provide sick pay,Sick pay and sickness benefit schemes in the European Union Background report for the Social Protection Committee's In-Depth Review on sickness benefits Brussels, 17 October 2016 in the form of a time-limited continuous payment of salary by the employer.
Directive 92/85 gives women the right to a minimum of 14 weeks of maternity leave including two compulsory weeks, paid at least at the national sick pay level.
In 2009, the Court of Justice of the EU considered that workers on long-term sick leave will not lose their right to holiday pay where they have been unable to take the holiday by virtue of being on sick leave: a worker cannot be deprived of the right to paid holiday when he or she has not had the opportunity to take it.
Directive 2019/1158 gives men paternity leave: fathers or second parents have the right to take at least ten working days of paternity leave compensated at least at the national sick pay level.
EU minimum compulsory sick pay is 25% in Slovakia while the maximum is 100% in Belgium and Finland.
Sickness benefit replacement rates range from 50% to 100% of the gross or net salary. The average flat-rate sickness benefit is around 20% in Malta and the UK (the latter of which was bound to EU rules until 2021).
In recent decades many countries have reduced sickness benefits by introducing waiting periods, reduced income replacement rates, and sick pay.
Women use more sick leave than men and older people more than younger people.
The sustainability of sickness benefit schemes is related to the nature of the agreement between the employer and the social security system.
At the opposite, some people work during illness – presenteeism – which raises other issues.
Under the Federal Government's industrial relations legislation, known as Fair Work, eligible employees are entitled to 10 days of paid personal leave (sick/carer's leave) per year, which also carries over to subsequent years if not used.
In addition, Australian workers may be entitled to two days of compassionate leave for each permissible occasion where a member of their family or household contracts or develops a personal illness or sustains a personal injury that poses a threat to their life, or dies.
Other legislation and agreements apply in other contexts, such as sick children, pregnancy, and Parental leave.
Since 2011, civil servants are not paid for the first day of a sick leave ("jour de carence"). This rule was abolished in 2014, and then reinstated again since January 2018.
After these six weeks, an employee who is insured in the statutory health insurance ( Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung) receives about 70% of their last salary, paid by the insurance. According to § 48 SGB V (social code5) the health insurance pays for a maximum of 78 weeks in case of a specific illness within a period of three years. In case another illness appears during the time when the employee is already on sick leave then the new illness will have no effect on the maximum duration of the payment. Only if the patient returns to work and falls sick again with a new diagnosis will the payment be extended.
Fathers and mothers who are insured in the statutory health insurance and are raising a child younger than 12 years also have the right to paid leave if the child is sick ( Kinderkrankengeld). The insurance pays for a maximum of 10 days per parent and per child (20 days for a single parent), limited to 25 days per year per parent (50 for a single parent).Krankengeld
For patients with private health insurance, payments beyond the legally mandated first six weeks depend on the insurance contract.
A 2009 analysis from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that around 39% of American workers in the private sector do not have paid sick leave.Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 30. Leave benefits: Access, private industry workers, National Compensation Survey, March 2009 . Around 79% of workers in low-wage industries do not have paid sick time.Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 30. Most food service and hotel workers (78%) lack paid sick days.Vicky Lovell, Institute for Women's Policy Research, "Women and Paid Sick Days: Crucial for Family Well-Being" , 2007.
A 2008 survey reported that 77% of Americans believe that having paid sick days is "very important" for workers.Tom W. Smith, "Paid Sick Days: A Basic Labor Standard for the 21st Century" , National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, August 2008. Some workers report that they or a family member have been fired or suspended for missing work due to illness.
A 2020 paper found that requiring paid sick leave in the U.S. likely increased overall well-being. When paid sick leave is required by law, workers tended to take two more days off work each year.
U.S. federal law requires unpaid leave for serious illnesses through the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This law requires most medium-sized and larger employers to comply and, within those businesses, covers employees who have worked for their employer for at least 12 months prior to taking the leave.National Partnership for Women and Families, "The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Frequently Asked Questions" , 2009.
During the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommended that anyone with flu-like symptoms remain at home.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "CDC Recommendations for the Amount of Time Persons with Influenza-Like Illness Should be Away from Others", October 29, 2009. According to a report from the Institute for Women's Policy Research, more than eight million workers went to their jobs while sick during the H1N1 pandemic.Institute for Women's Policy Research, "Sick at Work: Infected Employees in the Workplace During the H1N1 Pandemic" , February 2010.
In 2008, a sick employee at a Chipotle restaurant in Kent, Ohio likely caused an outbreak that resulted in over 500 people becoming ill.January W. Payne, "Ohio Disease Outbreak Linked to Chipotle Restaurant", US News & World Report, April 21, 2008. The outbreak cost that community between $130,233 and $305,337 in lost wages, lost productivity, and health care costs.Amy Hanauer (13 August 2008), "Outbreak in Ohio: Cost of the 2008 Norovirus Incident in Kent". Policy Matters Ohio. .
| + States with paid sick leave laws | ||
| Public Act No. 11-52 signed into law by Governor Dannel Malloy on July 1, 2011. | ||
| Legislation signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in 2014. | ||
| Question 4 passed by voters in November 2014. | ||
| Legislation (SB 454) signed into law by Governor Kate Brown in 2015. | ||
| HB 187 signed into law by Governor Peter Shumlin on March 9, 2016. | ||
| Proposition 206 (Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act) passed by voters in November 2016. | ||
| Initiative 1433 passed by voters in November 2016. | ||
| Legislation signed into law by Governor Gina Raimondo in 2017. | ||
| In January 2018, the State Legislature overrode a veto of Governor Larry Hogan. | ||
| New Jersey | October 29, 2018 | Legislation signed by Governor Phil Murphy on May 2, 2018. |
| Michigan | March 29, 2019 | In September 2018, the State Legislature approved a ballot initiative, effectively making it law. |
| Nevada | January 1, 2020 | Legislation signed by Governor Steve Sisolak on June 12, 2019. |
| Maine | January 1, 2021 | Legislation (LD 369) signed into law by Governor Janet Mills on May 28, 2019. |
| New York | January 1, 2021 | Legislation signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo on April 3, 2020. |
| Colorado | January 1, 2021 / January 1, 2022 | Legislation signed into law by Governor Jared Polis on July 14, 2020. |
| New Mexico | July 1, 2022 | Legislation signed into law by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on April 8, 2021. |
| Illinois | January 1, 2024 | Legislation signed into law by Governor J. B. Pritzker on March 13, 2023. |
| Minnesota | January 1, 2024 | Legislation signed into law by Governor Tim Walz on May 24, 2023, as part of a paid family and medical leave bill. |
In November 2006, the voters of San Francisco passed a ballot initiative making the city the first in the country to guarantee paid sick days to all workers.
In March 2008, the Washington, D.C. Council voted unanimously to pass legislation guaranteeing workers paid sick time. The law does not cover tipped restaurant workers or workers in the first year of employment. The D.C. law was also the first in the United States to include paid "safe" days for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
On July 1, 2011, Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy signed into law Public Act No. 11-52 which made Connecticut the first state to mandate paid sick leave. The Act, which only narrowly passed through Connecticut's Senate (18–17) and House of Representatives (76–65), took effect on January 1, 2012, and requires employers to allow their "service workers" to earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked, capped at a maximum of 40 hours per year. The Act applies to the "service workers" of employers with 50 or more employees in Connecticut during any single quarter in the previous year.
On September 8, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown announced that he would sign the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 to require employers to offer paid sick leave to employees. California would become the second state after Connecticut to require paid days off for ill employees.
On November 4, 2014, Massachusetts voters approved "Question 4", a ballot measure mandating sick pay for all part-time and full-time workers at firms with more than 11 employees. The law was passed 59–41 and came into effect July 1, 2015.
On June 12, 2015, the Oregon legislature passed OL 537, 2015 mandating sick pay for all workers at businesses with at least ten employees (six for cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants, e.g. Portland) effective January 1, 2016.
On May 23, 2023, the Minnesota legislature presented portions of the state's biennial budget to the governor's office which included a new requirement for "earned sick and safe time" (ESST). The following day, these portions were signed into law by Governor Tim Walz to take effect on January 1, 2024. The new law requires all employers in Minnesota to provide one hour of paid time off for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours of accrued time off per year, for all employees who work at least 80 hours per year, unless the employer's existing leave policies or a collective bargaining agreement meet or exceed the requirements of the law. The law does not preempt local ordinances related to paid sick leave, and employers are required to follow whichever ESST requirements are more favorable to employees.
Many high-income economies require employers to provide paid sick days upwards of 10 days, including: the Netherlands, Ireland (from 2026), Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Singapore.
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