When you’re sick, you should stay home and get better. That common sense was, for a long time, not necessarily common in America, but it seems to be making a bit of a comeback. Workplace sick policies are changing and so are workers’ views on taking sick time. How does it impact you?
Here are Five Fast Facts on the reinvention of sick days:
- 🧓 “Back In My Day…” - Going back decades, many workers just pushed through illnesses and rarely called in sick. Not so today! This year, 30% of white collar workers have taken sick days, compared with just 21% in 2019. And 2019 was almost double the number of sick days compared to a decade before that! Or are we all just getting sicker?
- 📈 Rising Costs - This additional sick time is raising costs for many companies. For example, Stellantis (the company that owns Chrysler) claims to have lost almost 11% of hourly worker time in 2022 due to sick time, resulting in a lack of thousands of cars and hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. Maybe that’s partly why cars are so expensive…
- ❓ Why, Oh Why? There’s no one answer for why this is happening, but there are several good guesses. The pandemic caused people to take sick days like never before, particularly for reasons like mental health, stress, and burnout. On top of that, job hopping and virtual work means people aren’t as connected to their co-workers, and so they feel less guilty calling in and forcing their work on those co-workers. Well, that’s so nice. 🤦
- 🧒 Ah, Youth - Older workers tend to feel that “sickness equals weakness” and are much less likely to take sick time off. Younger workers don’t seem to be picking up that mindset as previous generations have, and are taking roughly double the number of sick days they used to. Those darn whippersnappers!
- 👪 All In The Family - Another component to higher sick days is that more employers are allowing sick time to take care of kids or other family members. Over 80% of private employers offer paid time off now, and there’s a trend toward unlimited sick days so workers are much more likely to take them now. Apparently having = using!
🔥Bottom line: There’s still a big chunk of workers who don’t have any sick time at all, mostly lower income and hourly workers. But, most employers provide some amount of sick time, so that’s good protection for your Paycheck. In this market where workers are still hard to find and keep, sick time should keep improving and growing in order to help keep good people. But, like most everything related to economics, there’s a natural push/pull to find a happy medium, and it seems that medium is in the process of shifting.
How do you view sick days? Do you feel pressure to work even when you’re sick?
Let us know by connecting with us on Facebook and Instagram! Also, remember to share this newsletter with your friends & coworkers!
BTW, If you’ve read this far and haven’t yet signed up for the weekly Paycheckology newsletter, CLICK HERE!
