On January 17, 2013, Commissioner Amanda Fritz proposed a sick time policy to improve the public and economic health of working people in Portland and, in turn, the city as a whole. We compiled these Frequently Asked Questions so Portland employers can understand how the policy would work and why it is a step forward for our community. Download the FAQ here.
Q: Would this policy affect my Portland business?
A: This policy applies to employees who work within the geographic boundaries of the city for 240 hours or more in a calendar year. If you already allow your employees to accrue 5 or more paid sick days, PTO or paid vacation that can be used without notice for sick purposes per year, this new policy will not affect you because your existing policy already meets the proposed minimum requirement.
Q: What does the proposed law require?
A: This depends on the size of your business or organization.
If you employ 5 or fewer people, the proposed law would mean:
- Full- and part-time employees would accrue one hour of unpaid (but job-protected) sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours per calendar year.
- It would be illegal to fire or retaliate against someone for taking the sick time they have earned.
- You would need to track employees’ accrual and usage of sick days, and record-keeping should remain consistent with current standards under state law.
- You may exceed the standard by giving your employees paid time, or by exceeding 40 hours/year in leave, but would not be required to do so.
If you have 6 or more employees, the proposed law would mean:
- Full- and part-time employees would accrue one hour of paid, job-protected sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours per calendar year.
- It would be illegal to fire or retaliate against someone for taking the sick time they have earned.
- You would need to track employees’ accrual and usage of sick days, and record-keeping should remain consistent with current standards under state law.
- You may exceed the standard by giving your employees paid and unpaid time off beyond 40 hours/year, but would not be required to do so.
Q: Does the sick time accrue from year to year or pay out upon termination?
A: Unused, accrued sick time can roll over to a new year, but you are never required to allow an employee more than 40 hours of sick time in one calendar year. You are not responsible for paying an employee for unused sick time upon termination, resignation, retirement, or other separation from employment.
Q: Does PTO count?
A: Yes. If you have a PTO (“Paid Time Off”) policy in place that meets the minimum requirements of this policy (see above), then you are already in compliance.
Q: What about temporary employees — are they included?
A. The law applies to employees that work 240 hours or more in a year in Portland.
Q: What about employers with employees who work in Portland and elsewhere?
A: The law only covers those employees that work 240 hours or more in Portland.
Q: What can employees use sick time for?
A: Employees who have earned sick time can use it for their own health, to care for the health of a family member, or to address issues caused by domestic violence, sexual harassment, assault or stalking.
Q: What safeguards are there against possible employee abuse?
A: Safeguards against possible employee abuse that are incorporated into the policy include:
- You may send an employee home and require that they use their sick time if they are obviously sick when they report to work.
- Shift-trading is allowed if it is mutually agreed upon by the employer and employee and takes place in the same or next pay period. However, you may not require the employee to find a replacement as a condition for taking the sick time.
- In cases where there is a pattern of abuse or absences of more than 3 consecutive days, you may require a licensed health care provider’s note before any paid or unpaid sick leave is approved. However, under existing Oregon law you would be required to pay the costs associated with procuring that note. As an alternative, you may require the employee to submit a signed personal statement that the leave was for a purpose covered by the ordinance.
- As with any other employee concern, you may investigate a documented pattern of abuse in an employee’s unscheduled use of sick time and notify the employee of concerns.
Q: How likely is employee abuse?
A: Although some employers and employees can think of individual cases where employees or co-workers have misused sick time, the findings from San Francisco and across the country show that such misuse is in fact rare. Nationally, workers with access to paid sick time use an average of 2.2 days a year in small firms and 3.1 days a year in large firms (Source: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Analysis of data from the 2008 National Health Interview Survey, 2010.) Data from San Francisco has shown that workers take a median of 3 sick days a year, even when they have more days available to them.
Learn more here:
- Read Understanding Paid Sick Time: A Guide for Employers: http://bit.ly/SickTime4Employers
- Read the draft ordinance: http://bit.ly/draftsicktimeordinance
- Contact Family Forward Oregon: 503-928-6789 or lisa@familyforwardoregon.org
GENERAL QUESTIONS ABOUT EARNED SICK TIME
Here are some answers to the most common questions we hear when we’re out talking with Portlanders about earned sick time:
Q. What is an earned sick day?
A. Having earned sick time allows a worker to stay home to take care of himself or a sick family member, or to attend a doctor’s appointment – without losing pay for that time off from work.
Currently, Connecticut is the only state and Seattle, San Francisco and the District of Columbia the only cities in the U.S. that require employers to allow workers to earn paid sick days. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires certain employers to grant qualified employees up to 12 weeks of long-term medical leave but it does not require employers to grant PAID sick leave. The FMLA does not cover routine illnesses like a cold or stomach flu, or provide leave to seek preventive care like a routine physical examination.
The U.S. is one of the only industrialized nations that does not require employers to provide workers with the opportunity to earn paid sick days.
Q. Doesn’t every American worker get to earn sick days?
A. No. In fact, a surprisingly high number of workers in the United States – 42 percent – do not get a single paid sick day – and that puts everyone’s heath at risk. In Oregon, 40% of private-sector workers earn no sick time while working.
Nationwide, nearly 44 million people do not get a single day off to take care of themselves or a family member when they are sick. That means many of these workers come to work sick rather than lose their job or a day’s wages – and that puts the health of their co-workers, clients and customers at risk. In addition, millions of workers who do have paid sick days may not be allowed to use them to care for a sick child or other family member.
America needs paid sick days and other policies that protect the health of workers and their families, and reflect the economic realities of family life today – when most women work, most families with children have all parents in the workforce, growing numbers of workers care for an aging parent, and few can afford to lose a day’s pay or their job because they stayed home sick or to take care of a sick loved one.
Q. Who can and who cannot earn paid sick days?
A. The more highly paid employees are the more likely they are to earn paid sick days. Low-wage workers are the most acutely affected by a lack of paid sick days. Women – who bear a disproportionate share of family caregiving responsibilities – are also significantly impacted by lack of access to paid sick days.
Many of the workers without paid sick days are in jobs such as food service, childcare, eldercare and retail that place them in direct contact with the public: 74 percent of food service workers in Oregon earn no paid sick days.
Working women are increasingly in the position of being the breadwinners AND the dominant caregivers in our society. But women are also more likely to lose income when they or a family member become sick. National studies indicate that half of working mothers miss work when a child comes down with a common illness – with two-thirds of low-income mothers and one-third of middle and upper income mothers reporting lost pay to care for a sick child.
Q. Some folks say requiring earned sick days will hurt businesses and kill jobs. In this economy, can we afford the risk?
A. Many business owners support earned sick days because they know it’s good for their workers, their customers and their bottom lines. Businesses benefit from allowing their employees paid sick days. Evidence suggests that earned sick days help businesses keep the workplace healthier, reduce turnover and improve worker productivity.
Workers who come in sick spread their illness and cost our national economy $160 billion annually in lost productivity.7 Employees with earned sick days are more likely to stay in their jobs. Every time an employee leaves a job, it costs the employer 25 -200 percent of a worker’s total compensation, on average, to replace that worker.
Finally, real life experience provides proof that paid sick days have been good for business. San Francisco enacted a paid sick days law for all employees citywide in 2007. Today, two-thirds of businesses in the city say they support the policy. The number of small and large businesses in the city has grown since 2007 and growth has been stronger than in the surrounding five counties. And San Francisco has recently rated as one of the best places in the world to do business.
Q. How does allowing workers to earn sick days help the economy?
A. During this sluggish economic recovery, job retention is as important as job creation. But keeping a job can be difficult for workers with children or elderly parents to care for because today’s workplace policies do not allow much flexibility to for caregiving responsibilities. In fact, nearly one-quarter of adults say they have lost a job or been threatened with job loss for taking a sick day. Providing paid sick days allows works to fulfill their roles as caregivers without putting their wages or jobs at risk. Economists say job retention policies like paid sick days help reduce unemployment and strengthen the economy.
Q. What about the needs of small businesses?
A. Small businesses reap the same benefits as larger ones do when it comes to cost savings, reduced turnover, and less presenteeism. Historically, earned sick days bills have allowed small businesses to offer fewer earned sick days to their workers than large corporations.
Q: Why shouldn’t it be up to the individual employer, like other benefits?
A: Lack of earned sick days poses serious public health risks. For example, as many as seven million people may have been infected with the H1N1 virus by co-workers who came to work sick.13 Like health code standards for restaurants, or immunization requirements for school children, this is an area that affects all of us and requires a minimum standard. Many workers without paid sick days handle food, provide childcare and care for the elderly, posing serious risks of spreading illness to others.
The public also benefits from lower health care costs with earned sick days. Workers with access to paid sick days are able to schedule primary and preventive care appointments, keeping workers healthier and reducing the number of costly hospital emergency room visits. Paid sick days would save an estimated $1 billion in emergency room costs, including $500 million to public health programs.
Further, it’s a healthy equity issue. All workers – no matter where they work – should be able to care for themselves and their dependent family members when routine illness strikes.
Q. Won’t workers who earn sick days abuse the policy?
A. Experience shows that abuse is not a problem. In San Francisco, where full- time workers accrue either five or nine paid sick days, a full 25 percent took no sick time in the prior year; workers used a median of three days. Unfortunately, the real abuse is workers being forced to work sick or being fired for caring for a sick child. One in six workers report that they or a family member had been fired, suspended, punished or threatened with being fired for taking time off due to personal illness or to care for a sick child or relative. Also, one way to look at it is if an employee is allowed a certain number of sick days, to recognize that using the full amount is not abuse.
Q. Who supports earned sick days?
A. The overwhelming majority of Americans. Public opinion research show support for paid sick days is strong and bipartisan across the country. Nationally, three out of four Americans (75 percent) and close to 90 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents and nearly 60 percent of strong Republicans favor guaranteeing workers a minimum number of paid sick days.
Earned sick days policies are also supported by leading national public health groups, including the American Public Health Association and the National Association of School Nurses; by civil rights groups, including the National Council of La Raza and the NAACP; and by women’s and children’s groups, organized labor, faith leaders and many others.
Here in Oregon, many organizations (see a list of coalition members here) and businesses (see a list here – scroll down) support giving workers the opportunity to earn paid sick days – to keep us ALL healthy.
