Take a Sick Day, Please: H1N1 and the Office

As a near-constant sneezer when the weather changes, flu season is a chance for me to experience the kind of general public shunning usually reserved for tax auditors or people who attempt to leash their cats. On crowded trains, I not only have my own seat, but usually an empty one next to me as well. At the grocery store checkout, other customers eye me suspiciously and dig in their purses or pockets for bottles of Purell. The other day, after I sat down at the table next to him, an alarmed man promptly fled the coffee shop, muttering about germs.

As it so happens, I'm not sick -- just allergic to dust. Or, possibly to air. But, I understand their alarm, because Americans aren't staying home when they're sick. For a few it's a choice, but for most it's because they don't have the option of sick leave.

Lack of sick leave -- or, those who refuse to take it -- is a problem every season. But, this season it's coinciding with not only low levels of H1N1 vaccine, but also low levels of seasonal flu vaccine. On Wednesday, citing fears over the spread of H1N1, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) introduced a measure that would require businesses to give employees with contagious illnesses up to five paid days of leave without penalty.

Currently, 66 percent of workers have some kind of paid sick leave available. Economix breaks it down a little further, though, by income levels. The top 25 percent of earners are doing OK, with 86 percent receiving paid sick leave. The majority of workers in the 50-75th and the 25-50th percentile are also covered, with 77 percent and 68 percent, respectively, receiving some sick leave.

Not surprisingly, it's those who can least afford to lose any income that have the least cushion when it comes to sick leave, with only 37 percent of the lowest quarter of wage earners receiving sick leave. Pivotally, if Miller's measure passes, it would also apply to part-time hourly employees, who usually receive no benefits and also make up a large segment of the lowest 25 percent of wage earners.