[Print on Letterhead]
February 4, 2014
The Honorable Roger Hernandez
Chair, Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment
1020 N Street, Room 155
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: AB 1522 (Gonzalez)
Position: SUPPORT
Dear Assemblymember Hernandez:
[Organization Name] supports Assembly Bill 1522. AB 1522, Paid Sick Days, aims to reduce the impact that illnesses have on the state’s working families as well as the health and safety of employees in the workplace. Additionally, providing employees with paid sick leave could reduce health care costs by allowing workers and their family members time to visit a primary care physician to address an illness rather than rushing to an emergency room to seek care out of fear of missing work.
Under AB 1522, workers in California would accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked and employers would have the option of capping an employee’s paid sick leave at 24 hours, or 3 days, annually. Other states and cities – including Connecticut; New York City; Portland, Ore.; Washington, D.C.; and San Francisco – have adopted paid sick day laws.
Economic security: According to “Paid Sick Days: Attitudes and Experiences”, a publication by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, workers without paid sick days have to go to work sick or stay home, lose pay and risk job loss or workplace discipline. Nearly one quarter of adults in the United States (23 percent) report that they have lost a job or have been threatened with job loss for taking time off due to illness or to care for a sick child or relative.
Cost effective: According to “Lost Productive Health Time Costs from Health Conditions in the United States: Results from the American Productivity Audit, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine,” working people with paid sick days are more productive and less likely to leave their jobs, which saves businesses money by reducing turnover. And “presenteeism” – when employees work sick – is estimated to cost our national economy $160 billion in lost productivity each year.
Reduce community contagion: In March of 2010, the Joint Economic Committee (U.S. Congress) published “Expanding Access to Paid Sick Leave: The Impact of the Healthy Families Act on America’s Workers.” It was reported that workers without paid sick days are more likely to report going to work with a contagious illness like the flu or a viral infection —and risk infecting others.
Decrease health care costs: According to a publication by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, “Paid Sick Days and Health: Cost Savings from Reduced Emergency Department Visits”, if all workers had paid sick days, it is estimated that 1.3 million emergency room visits could be prevented each year in the United States, saving $1.1 billion in health care costs annually. More than half of these savings – $517 million – would go to taxpayer-funded health insurance programs such as Medicare and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
We urge your support of AB 1522.
Sincerely,
NAME
TITLE
cc: The Honorable Lorena Gonzalez
Members, Assembly Labor and Employment Committee
Benjamin Ebbink, Chief Consultant, Labor and Employment Committee