CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Chicago-based anti-poverty organization said that especially when there’s a health emergency like the coronavirus, it’s imperative low-paid workers get paid sick days.
Wendy Pollack, director of Women’s Law and Policy Initiative at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law said many times, low paid workers have high level of contact with the public - those like restaurant workers, child care workers, and caregivers for the sick and elderly.
Pollack said most often, those workers do not get paid sick days and feel forced to go to work when they’re sick just to make ends meet.
“We know that two-thirds of lowest paid workers don’t have access to paid sick leave while only 6 percent of the highest paid workers don’t have sick leave,” she said.
“The economic repercussions just snowball for low-wage worker.”
Pollack also said changes are needed in unemployment insurance benefits, to cover those impacted for instance when conventions are cancelled.
She said there are 1.5 million workers in Illinois who are being forced to go to work to put food on their tables, even when they’re sick and at risk to the general public.
Wendy Pollack calls for a state law requiring paid sick time.