Workers not Paid for Sick Leave after Implementation of the New York City Paid Sick Leave Law

Paid Leave Mandates and Care for Older Parents

Policy Points We examined the effect of the Paid Family Leave policy (PFL) and Paid Sick Leave policy (PSL) on care provision to older parents. We found that PSL adoption led to an increase in care provision, an effect mainly attributable to respondents in states/periods when PSL and PFL were concurrently offered. Some of the strongest effects were found among women and unpartnered adult children. PFL adoption by itself was not associated with care provision to parents except when PFL also offered job protection. Paid leave policies have heterogeneous effects on eldercare and their design and implementation should be carefully considered.

CONTEXT

Family caregivers play a critical role in the American long-term care system. However, care responsibilities are known to potentially conflict with paid work, as about half of family caregivers are employed. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act passed by the US Congress in 1993 provides a nonuniversal, unpaid work benefit. In response, several states and localities have adopted the Paid Family Leave policy (PFL) and Paid Sick Leave policy (PSL) over the last two decades. Our objective is to examine the effect of these policies on the probability of personal care provision to older parents.

METHODS

This study used longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2020). Difference-in-differences regression models were estimated to examine associations between state- and local-level PFL and PSL mandates and personal care provision to older parents. We analyzed heterogeneous effects by the type of paid leave exposure (provision of job protection with PFL and availability of both PSL and PFL [with or without job protection] concurrently). We also examined results for different population subgroups.

FINDINGS

PSL implementation was associated with a four- to five-percentage point increase in the probability of personal care provision. These effects were mainly attributable to respondents in states/periods when PSL and PFL were concurrently offered. The strongest effects were found among adult children who were employed at baseline, women, younger, unpartnered, and college educated. PFL implementation by itself was not associated with care provision to parents except when the policy also offered job protection.

CONCLUSIONS

Paid leave policies have heterogeneous impacts on personal care provision, potentially owing to differences in program features, variation in caregiving needs, and respondent characteristics. Overall, the results indicate that offering paid sick leave and paid family leave, when combined with job protection, could support potential family caregivers.

Early Effects of the New York City Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law

CONTEXT

Paid sick leave (PSL) is a public health strategy associated with benefits for workers, businesses, and consumers. In the absence of a federal law, in 2014, New York City (NYC) joined other state and municipal governments with local PSL policies.

OBJECTIVES

To examine changes in PSL after the implementation of NYC's 2014 Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law and to assess which communities remain less likely to use PSL.

DESIGN

This study uses data from multiple panels of the NYC Longitudinal Survey of Wellbeing (NYC-LSW)-a population-representative study of NYC adults-to track changes in PSL, using data collected before and after NYC's Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law was implemented. We use weighted cross-tabulations and multinomial logistic regression models to assess changes in payment for sick leave since the implementation of the law.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

The study includes 2985 NYC adults aged 18 to 64 years who reported working for pay in the year preceding the survey where PSL questions were asked (2014-2019).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Use of sick leave and payment for sick leave.

RESULTS

Weighted descriptive results show a 7-percentage-point increase ( P = .02) in the rate of being paid for all sick days and a 6-percentage-point decrease ( P = .02) in not being paid for any sick days. Results from multinomial logistic regression models, adjusting for potential confounders, show that after implementation of the law, workers with low levels of education, who are younger, Latino, and foreign-born remain less likely than their peers to use PSL.

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrate that the PSL mandate expanded access for employees but not evenly across groups. These results offer guidance to other jurisdictions implementing PSL policies, suggesting the need for targeted education and enforcement efforts to ensure policies reach sectors where low-wage workers are most prevalent.

The impact of paid sick leave mandates on Women's health

The United States does not have a national program to provide job-protected paid leave to workers when they or a family member are ill or need to seek medical care. Many workers receive paid sick leave through their employers, but women, particularly parents, those without a college degree, and Latinas, are less likely than their counterparts to receive employer-provided paid sick leave (PSL). To address the shortfall in PSL coverage, several states and localities have passed laws mandating employers to provide PSL. I examine the impacts of three recent state-level paid sick leave policies on women's self-reported health using data from the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System. Using static and event-study difference-in-differences models, I find that PSL mandates decreased the proportion of women reporting fair or poor health by an average of 2.4 percentage points and reduced the number of days women reported their physical and mental health was not good by 0.68 days and 0.43 days in the past 30 days respectively. Effects were concentrated among parents, women without college degrees, and women of color. This study demonstrates that despite being a low-intensity policy, PSL improves women's health and well-being and that mandating workplace benefits may play a role in achieving health equity.

Vulnerabilities in workplace features for essential workers with breast cancer: Implications for the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the health and financial vulnerabilities of essential workers, especially among women.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to understand the workplace environment of essential workers.

METHODS

We used data from a prospective cohort study of disparities in employment outcomes among women undergoing breast cancer treatment between 2010-2018 in New York City. We characterized participants as essential or non-essential based on self-reported occupation/industry and New York State executive orders issued during the pandemic. We compared job benefits and perceptions of workplace environment between groups.

RESULTS

There were 563 participants: 341 essential and 222 non-essential workers. Essential workers less frequently reported access to disability pay through work [n(%): 148 (58) versus 130 (73), p < 0.01]. Essential workers in unions had greater availability of sick leave and disability pay than non-unionized essential workers (86% versus 53%, p < 0.01, and 76% versus 46%, p < 0.01, respectively). Health insurance differed by essential worker status (p < 0.01): essential workers more frequently had public insurance (29% versus 18%). Surprisingly, in multivariable analyses controlling for age, race/ethnicity, income, education, chemotherapy receipt, and comfort with English, essential workers were less likely to say their employer had treated them unfairly (p < 0.01). However, minorities were less likely to say their employer was accommodating (p = 0.03) and more likely to say their employer had treated them unfairly (p < 0.01) than Non-Latina Whites.

CONCLUSIONS

We identified vulnerabilities in workplace protections, particularly among essential workers not in unions. Minority women more often had negative perceptions of their work environment, possibly reflecting employer bias.

Educating Restaurant Workers About Paid Sick Leave: A Pilot Study From New York City

Across the United States, cities, states, and counties are rapidly adopting paid sick leave laws. Paid sick leave policies for restaurant workers may be particularly beneficial, since these workers are less likely to have these benefits and have the potential to spread infection through food-handling and engagement with the public. In order for paid sick leave laws to work, workers and employers must be educated about these laws broadly and effectively. Focusing on New York City, we conducted a pilot research using key stakeholder interviews to learn about New York City's successes and challenges in educating workers and businesses about the law. Our findings indicate several lessons learned, including allocating sufficient funding, combined use of coalition building and organizing models, and attention to the needs of immigrant restaurant workers. Findings also suggest that greater attention should be paid to proactively addressing workplace organization and practices that thwart paid sick leave use.