“Lack of earned leave hurts Minnesota families,” is a new blog post by Zack Eichten, a junior economics and political science major at CSB|SJU. Zack is currently an intern at the Minnesota Budget Project, a position funded through the Economics Department’s Fruth Summer Internship program.
Two important points stand out:
- “Currently over one million – or 4 out of 10 – Minnesota workers lack earned sick leave, and low-income workers who can least afford to take time off work are also the most likely to not have paid time off. Nationally, less than 40 percent of low-income workers have access to earned sick leave, and only 5 percent of private-sector low-income workers have access to paid family leave, according to the report.”
- “The effects of lack of access to earned sick leave are clear. There have been just under 3,000 reported foodborne illnesses in Minnesota over the course of nearly a decade. Many of these illnesses could have been minimized had these workers had some form of earned leave to recover quickly, instead of “toughing it out” at work so that they did not lose wages. With earned leave in place, workplaces would be healthier.”
You can read the entire post here.
