“[I] couldn’t even walk or breathe and I’m like, I think I may have to go to the hospital, … So I called my boss… And I told ‘em, … I need to have the day off today, because I feel real sick… He was like, “No, I cannot give you the day off. If you don’t come in, I will give you 3 days of suspension” …and I went to work like that.”
Laura, grocery store worker
Lack of access to paid sick leave (PSL) forces millions of service-sector workers in the U.S. to choose between going to work sick (presenteeism) or losing their pay. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed attention to this critical workplace benefit, access to PSL remains highly limited and unequal in the service sector industry.
“My co-workers still work on days that they have a virus and they do get everyone else sick, because like, oh, they need that money that day.”
Worker’s quote
Shift Data point:
“Workers show up sick because there is nobody able to cover for them, they feel guilty leaving their co-workers short-handed, they can’t afford to miss work, or they fear retaliation from management.”
Daniel Schneider, New York Times
Case study
We studied Olive Garden’s expansion of PSL during COVID-19 and found that changing to a high-road PSL policy effectively broadened access to PSL, as compared to other food service workers.
Case study
Washington State PSL law expanded workers’ access to PSL among service sector workers by 28 percentage points.
High-road corporate strategies and PSL laws helped not only to increase workers’ access to PSL, but to reduce presenteeism, and narrow the gender gap.
At Shift, we have advanced academic research on PSL, and our data has been widely cited in the press and has become a “go-to” source for the topic, providing crucial inputs to legislators, policymakers, and advocates seeking evidence to support expanding paid leave.
We draw on new panel data collected from 8600 hourly service sector workers between 2017 and 2022 to estimate short-run…
This report aims to illuminate the state of compliance with California’s core labor standards and the opportunities and barriers to…
Paid sick leave is essential for worker well-being and the public health, yet the United States does not have a…
Paid sick leave helps workers recover from illness and manage care obligations and protects public health. Yet access to paid…
The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the important role that frontline retail, grocery, food service, and delivery workers play…
The COVID-19 pandemic has focused public and policy attention on the acute lack of paid sick leave for service-sector workers…