Why it is a good idea to give workers paid sick leave

It’s up to businesses. Nothing is mandatory at the federal level (FMLA will preserve your job - if you work for a company with enough employees - but does not require you to be paid anything).

Many jobs, especially unskilled, do not have sick leave

I work as a nanny.  Some families offer paid sick leave and some don't.  The current family I work for doesn't, but I'm only working part time.

New York passed a paid sick leave law that requires employers with 5 or more employees to provide paid sick leave. The whining of the business community was sickening. The very same people complaining that no one wants to work was pissed at the idea of providing any sort of benefits to their staff. I work for a state agency that monitors a program that is required of employers and cannot tell you how many times I hear that if they have to pay for this program or the fines associates from ignoring it they are just going to fire their employee(s). Some go as far as emailing it to us while cc'ing their employee(s). Glad I am in a union.

100% this.

Sick leave is pretty much employer dependent.

I have great sick leave (and vacation, other benefits). Dh has been self employed for many years, but before that when he worked for a small family owned business, he was only given a few sick days a year as excused but no pay.

DD is 23 and working part time as she deals with several physical and mental health issues. She was recently fired from her job at a pet store as she missed too much time in the last few months (she had COVID in December and again in early Feb) and needed too much time off for doctor appointments. Right now she is trying to figure out where to look next. Her therapist has recommended SSI but she's not entirely thrilled with that idea as she likes working. But it is hard with her health issues.

Because employers often look askance at people who take their sick leave, especially when it's time for a raise or promotion.

Because in education, there often isn't a sub for you, and if there is, sometimes it's easier to work sick than to create sub plans.

According to this article, more Americans that have no sick leave is greater than the entire population of Australia. We do have paid sick leave here. It's called treating your employees as humans.

There are individual States that require it but not federally.

NJ requires sick leave even for part time employees. You have to accrue it before you can use it & hope you have enough when you need it. Union workers who have a contract saying something else are exempt, but as they negotiate upcoming contracts I’m sure that will be a moot point.

HOWEVER, so many companies severely frown on using sick leave that even if you have it many are afraid to use it. My current job is the only place I have ever felt ‘comfortable’ using sick leave.

So I finally work in a state that has separate sick time from PTO. Typically my sick time was my PTO which made you really think hard about vacations. Now I have a separate bank. Fantastic right? Nope. Employer put in a caveat that you can only have three uses of sick time per rolling year. After that you get a write up. Doesn’t matter what your sick time balance is. So again you have to be very careful. While I think there should be limits to avoid abuse of sick time I feel 3 incidents when you have a balance is not appropriate. People should be able to use their time. If they go over the allotted hours in the year then that’s a discussion to be had. I’m believe they also limit when you can use sick time like before/after holidays etc. so basically you have to be sick in the middle of the week and only three times in a rolling year.

Well, while that’s is true, in addition to that it would be great if employers actually had mercy as well.

It’s always surprising to me how pennywise & pound foolish corporate policies are. They establish a giant list of petty rules which just creates a petty & difficult environment creating lost productivity. They loose sight of training and such invested in employees and act like they are worthless. It amazes me that companies can’t seem to treat their employees like the valuable asset they are. ( I long ago gave up on them treating us humanely that’s too much to ask ) but what about caring for the investment of time, information & money you’ve made in these employees that are an asset to your business. You’d think they could at least grasp that.