Paid Sick Time Case Study

Paid Sick Time
Arizona employers who do not currently offer paid sick time will be required to start accruing as of July 1, 2017. There has been an enormous amount of debate over whether there is a need to offer sick time, especially to employees who have paid time off which can be used for anything, including sick days. On the other hand, there is a significant need for employees who are not offered any paid sick time or paid time off. You will find a mix of employees and employers on either side and sometimes on both sides of this debate. Few will change their opinion when they think of themselves as the employee versus the employer and vice versa. Employers and employees have raised concerns alike regarding whether providing days specifically denoted as sick will encourage more unplanned days off, will negatively impact those that do not get sick, and whether it is fair to require sick time versus paid time off in which we can all agree everyone should have paid sick time when the

When you have an employee, who does not have paid time designated to sick, they will often go to work sick as opposed to losing a vacation day. (Miller) The reluctance of giving up a vacation day versus staying home and getting healthy is noteworthy. “The problem”, eloquently put by Miller, “they drag their contagious carcasses to work, infecting colleagues, delaying their own recovery and giving less than a day's work for a day's pay”. As an employer, dealing with an employee who comes to work sick does cause concern as they can infect other employees. Similarly, if the employee is in the food or retail industry, they can pass germs along to consumers. As Paquette states, “More than half of U.S. and Canadian fast food workers in a 2015 survey said they reported to work under-the-weather because they didn't want to lose money”. This is a trend that must end and can by offering employees paid sick