New York SBDC Research Network

For U.S. workers, access to employer-provided leave is closely related to how much they earn. Specifically, low-wage workers have substantially less access to leave benefits from their employers than higher paid workers. This was one of many interesting findings in a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics article, A look at pay at the top, the bottom, and in between . while less than two-thirds (61 percent) of workers in the private sector have access to paid sick leave, an even lower proportion (only 30 percent) of workers among the lowest paid 25 percent have access to paid sick leave. In sharp contrast, the highest paid 10 percent of workers are almost three times more likely to have access to paid sick leave than those in the lowest paid 25 percent. Across all paid leave categories, (holidays, sick leave, vacation, personal, and family leave) workers in the lowest 25 percent of wage earners are two to four times less likely to have access to any form of paid leave compared with work

By Jennifer Kimmich, owner of the Alchemist Cannery, a brewery in Vermont. For nearly 30 years, I have worked in the service sector and in this time I’ve worked alongside the most dedicated, hardworking people I will ever know. These are the folks, many of whom are single mothers, who keep our businesses running day in and day out, cleaning our hotel rooms, working our front desks, and ringing up our coffee and gas in the morning. These are the hardworking Vermonters who, like all workers in the United States, need paid sick time. Years ago my husband, John, and I decided to offer paid sick days to our employees. To the surprise of many small business owners, it was one of the best business decisions we have ever made. See more in the US Department of Labor blog .