Access to paid sick leave

Roughly 33.6 million people do not have access to paid sick leave.

For many people, access to paid sick leave is as big a worry as empty supermarket shelves.

A recent Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labour Statistics data found that 24% of U.S. civilian workers, or roughly 33.6 million people, still do not have access to paid sick leave. (“Civilian workers” refers to private industry workers and state and local government workers combined.)

The privilege to paid sick leave is nearly universal among teachers, with 96% able to avail of the option, along with 94% of those in management, business and finance positions, while it is lower among workers employed in sales, 64%, while it stands at 59% among those working in construction, extraction, forestry and fishing. Paid sick leave is much more common in the public sector than in private businesses.

Click here to see other key findings from the bureau’s 2019 National Compensation Survey (NCS) and the complete Pew Research fact sheet.