Tina Batra Hershey, Jim Conway and Olivia Bennett: It’s time for Allegheny County to provide paid sick days for all

Covid-19 has shown us that our health and well-being are connected. Our own health depends on the health of the person next to us, and the person next to that person. No matter what we look like, where we live or what’s in our wallets, getting sick reminds us that at our core we’re all just human.

But for too long, we’ve let a powerful few block efforts to ensure paid time to care for our loved ones and recover from illness ourselves. When any one of us does not have access to paid time off to stay home, all of us are at risk.

As a local county worker, a public health professor, and an Allegheny County Council member, we’ve come together to say jointly: We must ensure everyone has the paid time off they need to recover from this virus or care for a sick loved one.

The covid-19 pandemic has closed Allegheny County businesses and schools, leaving too many families without income or the ability to care for their own health and the health and welfare of their loved ones. It has revealed shortcomings in Pittsburgh’s Paid Sick Days Act, which was finally implemented in March 2020. This act was a good start; however, it is functionally unenforceable due to being managed out of the skeletally staffed Office of Equity.

That’s why Allegheny County Council has introduced paid sick leave legislation, which would build upon the progress the city began. To be sure, paid sick leave is not just good pandemic policy; it is good public health policy. We can’t choose when we get sick, but, with the right protections, we can choose to take care of ourselves and our community. Whether we are Black, brown, native, Indigenous, Latinx or white: We all and deserve legislation that responds to our community’s health, safety, and economic conditions.

For too long, workers in Allegheny County have had to choose between working sick or losing a day’s pay. We have prepared and handled food and taken care of your loved ones while ill. For older workers and those with preexisting conditions, the stakes are literally life and death.

We need a paid sick days ordinance that:

1. Raises the cap on accrual of paid leave: As this pandemic has demonstrated, three to five days of paid sick leave may not give enough time for those on the front lines of a public health emergency to quarantine, recover from illness or care for their loved ones. County council should raise the caps on how much paid sick leave workers can accrue in a given year.

2. Increases compensation for tipped workers: The compensation rate for tipped workers should be set to the minimum wage plus an average of their tips over a given period of time. Tipped workers, as well as commission-based workers like nail techs, deserve to be compensated at a rate closer to their actual wage.

3. Front-loads paid leave: During a public health crisis like this, workers can’t wait to accrue paid sick leave to access their benefits when the need to stay home is immediate. Allegheny County should consider the legislation recently passed in Philadelphia that requires businesses to provide two weeks of paid sick leave through the end of the year.

4. Includes paid safe leave: This would give survivors of sexual violence and domestic abuse and their immediate family members the time to heal and attend to their needs.

Paid sick days are not just good for workers; businesses also benefit when their employees have access to paid sick days. When sick employees are able to stay home to recover, the risk of contagion is reduced, making workplaces healthier and employees more productive. Workers can obtain timely medical care and recover faster, enabling them to get back to work sooner and reducing health care costs.

Paid sick days also help to reduce the productivity lost when employees work sick — known as “presenteeism” — which is estimated to cost the national economy $160 billion annually or about $234 billion, surpassing the cost of absenteeism. And employees who go to work sick endanger public health by putting the health and productivity of other workers — as well as customers and the public — at risk, which carries an economic burden for employers and a public health risk for communities.

We need county-wide paid sick leave legislation because too many low-wage workers in Allegheny County are forced to decide between going to work sick or losing a day’s income, between paying the rent or jeopardizing public health, between taking care of sick children or losing their jobs. Our lack of comprehensive paid sick leave compounds an already devastating public health and economic crisis.

But covid-19’s secondary crisis is one we can fix. No one should lose their job or income because of a virus they couldn’t avoid. Now is the time to demand that our county government not only help us weather this pandemic, but set a better course for the future of all of our communities. Now is the time for us to unite across our differences and make policy choices that help everyday people in pursuit of a safe and thriving region.

When all of us, regardless of where we live or where we come from, can get the care we need, we are all better off. It’s time for Allegheny County Council to pass paid sick leave legislation.

Tina Batra Hershey is an assistant professor of health policy and management, interim deputy director of the Center for Public Health Practice, Research, Law and Policy in the Graduate School of Public Health and an affiliated professor of law in the School of Law at the University of Pittsburgh. Jim Conway is a member leader of the Server and Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United). Olivia Bennett represents District 13 on the Allegheny County Council.