Pandemic Seasonal Workers Get Taste of Elusive Paid Sick Time

Holiday seasonal workers often can’t get paid days off when they’re sick, but Covid-19 leave policies will provide a little relief to a significant number of this year’s cashiers, package carriers, and warehouse workers.

Through a combination of employment policies at Amazon, Target, UPS, and others, along with state and local emergency mandates, potentially hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers will have access to paid sick leave protections that ordinarily elude them.

These companies—each of which announced plans to hire 100,000 or more short-term workers ahead of the holiday shopping season—have said they’re offering 10 to 14 ...