Get the Prescription: Child Care Workers Need Paid Sick Days

Publication Date: July 2006

Publisher: Center for Law and Social Policy

Author(s): Jodie Levin-Epstein

Research Area: Labor

Type: Fact sheet

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

This handy fact sheet lays out the importance of paid sick days to child care workers. In Congress, states, and cities, initiatives are arising to establish paid sick days laws so that workers who are sick or need to care for a family member do not lose a job or wages if they take some days off. About half of workers in the U.S. are without paid sick days.

For child care workers, the lack of paid sick days is particularly problematic. Child care workers have a double whammy reason to support paid sick days: these workers need it not only for themselves but also for the parents of the children in their care; otherwise, parents with sick children who face losing a dayÂ’s wages may try to leave a sick child with the child care worker, despite any rules that say otherwise.