Paid Sick Leave Benefits Help Alleviate Worker Financial Stress

Workers already stressed about making ends meet—or losing their jobs—feel that stress multiplied when they don’t have paid sick leave.

“When you don’t have leave, a day off of work can mean eight hours with no wages, and make someone’s job vulnerable,” LeaAnne DeRigne, an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University’s Phyllis and Harvey Sandler School of Social Work, told Bloomberg Law. “If you can be in trouble for taking a paid sick day,” and it puts your job in jeopardy, “then you’re really in a scary and insecure financial situation.”

DeRigne—along with colleagues at Cleveland State University—have published new ...