CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A new survey of Chicago parents suggests that children who are frequently sick are less likely to have parents who get paid leave from their jobs to take care of those children.
The survey is the work of Lurie Children's Hospital and the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Dr. Matthew Davis is chief of Community Health Transformation at Lurie Children’s.
"If we think about paid leave as a way to help kids get healthier because their parents are around to nurse the kid back to health, the children who most need paid parental leave are the ones who have worse health overall," Davis said. "What we found is that, it's those very children — the kids in worse health — who are less likely to have their parents having paid leave through their employers."
Dr. Davis said the hospital found that four out of 10 employed parents said they did not receive paid leave.
Chicago and Cook County have ordinances giving parents the right to paid leave. And Davis said if parents have questions about why they are not getting that paid leave, they should ask their employers about their policy.