William Simpson
Bill Thompson’s wife never saw him smile with confidence. During the first 20 years of their relationship, a mouth infection stole his teeth one by one.
“I didn’t have the teeth to smile,” said the 53-year-old from Independence, Missouri.
Thompson said he dealt with throbbing toothaches and painful swelling in his face due to abscesses during years working as a cook at Burger King. He desperately needed to see a dentist, but said he couldn’t afford to take time off without pay. Missouri is one of many states that do not demand employers to provide paid sick leave.
Then Thompson would swallow Tylenol and go through the motions. pain as he worked on the hot grill.
“Or we go to work and get a paycheck,” Thompson said. “Or we take care of ourselves. We can’t take care of ourselves because, well, this vicious circle we’re stuck in.”
In a nation that has been sharply divided over government health mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, the public has warmed to the idea of government rules providing for paid sick leave.
Before the pandemic, 10 states and the District of Columbia had laws requiring employers to provide paid sick leave. Since then, Colorado, new York, New Mexico, IllinoisIt is Minnesota have passed laws offering some type of paid sick time. Oregon It is California expanded previous paid leave laws. In Missouri, AlaskaIt is Nebraskaadvocates are pushing to put the issue on the ballot this fall.
The USA is one of nine countries that do not guarantee paid sick leave, according to data compiled by the World Policy Analysis Center.
Missouri Worker Center
In response to the pandemic, Congress past the Emergency Paid Sick Leave and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion laws. These temporary measures allowed employees to take up to two weeks of paid sick leave for COVID-related illnesses and care. But the provisions expired in 2021.
“When the pandemic hit, we finally saw some real political will to solve the problem of no federally paid sick leave,” said economist Hilary. Things.
Wething co-authored a recent Economic Policy Institute report on the status of sick leave in the United States. It found that more than half, 61%, of the lowest paid workers are unable to take time off due to illness.
“I was really surprised by how quickly losing pay – because you’re sick – can translate into immediate and devastating cuts to a family’s household budget,” she said.
Wething noted that a day or two’s lost wages could be equivalent to a month’s worth of gasoline a worker would need to get to their job, or the choice between paying an electric bill or buying food. Wething said coming to work sick poses a risk to both co-workers and customers. Low-paying jobs that often lack paid sick leave — such as cashiers, manicurists, home health aides and fast-food workers — involve a lot of face-to-face interactions.
“Paid sick leave is therefore intended to protect the public health of a community and provide workers with the economic security they desperately need when they need to take time off work,” she said.
The National Federation of Independent Business opposition mandatory state-level sick leave rules, arguing that workplaces should have the flexibility to work something out with their employees when they get sick. The group said that cost to pay workers for time off, extra documentation and lost productivity burdens small employers.
According to a report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, once these mandates take effect, employees to takeon average, two more days of sick leave per year than before the law came into force.
Illinois Paid Time Off rules came into force this year. Lauren Pattan is co-owner of Old Bakery Beer Co. Before this year, the craft brewery did not offer paid time off to its hourly workers. Pattan said she supports Illinois’ new law but needs to figure out how to pay for it.
“We really try to respect our employees and be a good place to work, and at the same time we worry that we won’t be able to afford things,” she said.
This could mean customers will have to pay more to cover costs, Pattan said.
As for Bill Thompson, he he wrote an op-ed for the Kansas City Star about his dental difficulties.
“Despite working nearly 40 hours a week, many of my coworkers are homeless,” he wrote. “Without health care, none of us can afford a doctor or a dentist.”
That article gained attention locally, and in 2018, a dentist in his community donated his time and labor to remove Thompson’s remaining teeth and replace them with dentures. This allowed her mouth to recover from the infections she had been dealing with for years. Today, Thompson has a new smile and a job – with paid sick leave – working in hotel food service.
In his spare time, he collects signatures to put an initiative on the November ballot that guarantees at least five days of paid sick leave per year for Missouri workers. The organizers behind the petition said that enough signatures take it before the voters.
