Sick leave: Businesses without it don’t deserve support

The coronavirus now raging is a reminder that a third of American workers lack the right to take sick leave, even unpaid sick leave, and 27.5% of Americans have no health insurance.

The federal Family & Medical Leave Act doesn’t require businesses with fewer than 50 employees to provide any sick leave.

All businesses whose employees handle food and drink, or whose employees provide services for other people, should be required to provide sick leave and health insurance. That should include all restaurant and market employees, senior citizen retirement businesses and much more.

When you go to a restaurant, bar or market, ask whoever helps you if they can take paid sick leave, or even unpaid sick leave, and if they have health insurance.

If the answer is “no,” that will tell you a lot about which businesses deserve you as a customer, especially during flu season or epidemics like the coronavirus.

This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Sick leave: Businesses without it don’t deserve support."