Posts Tagged ‘NORC’

Milwaukee is a leader in the national brouhaha over paid sick days. In a recent survey, The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) found that 86 percent of US citizens favor legislation that would guarantee up to seven paid sick days a year. Milwaukee voters were ahead of the game, approving a referendum requiring paid sick days at the end of last year, making the Midwestern city third only to San Francisco and Washington, D.C. which already have legislation in place.

Milwaukee’s ordinance is being challenged. Detractors say that businesses may not be able to handle the costs, which could result in an abundance of lay-offs or cuts in benefits and salary.

But paid sick days may be more important to maintaining a productive workforce than one would think. According to the NORC, of those who were not receiving paid sick days, 55 percent said “they had at some point gone to work with a contagious illness like the flu or a viral infection” and 24 percent said “they had sent a sick child to school or day care because they had to go to work.” Is that strategy really less costly?