You wake up in the middle of the night and your child is throwing up. A sense of dread overcomes you as you realize you have to work in the morning.
Worry about this type of situation is a reality for many U.S. workers. Indeed, workers must juggle their own health and the health of their family members, while at the same time maintaining employment.
Paid sick leave is an employment benefit which provides pay and job protection to 72% of U.S. workers, while the other 28% may miss out on a day's wage and risk being fired when they or a family member become sick.
Dr. Patricia Stoddard-Dare and her co-authors investigated psychological distress among workers with and without paid sick leave benefits. Their paper published in American Journal of Orthopsychiatryopens in new window is the first to examine the possible link between mental well-being and this important workplace benefit.
Using a random sample of 17,897 U.S. workers from the National Interview Health Survey, Stoddard-Dare and colleagues used the K6 (6 item instrument) to measure psychological distress. Psychological distress is best understood as emotional suffering and includes depression and anxiety symptoms.
The research team took care to control for 20 variables that could possibly influence psychological distress such as gender, age, income, health status, alcohol use, and sleep.
They learned that workers who lack paid sick have significantly higher psychological distress and report their distress symptoms interfere "A LOT" with their life and activities compared to workers who have paid sick leave.
These findings are important for practitioners and other stakeholders, particularly given vigorous legislative activity regarding paid sick leave. Since 2006, 15 states have passed preemptive laws blocking paid sick leave, while 39 states and localities have passed laws mandating employers to provide paid sick leave.
Since this research demonstrates that workers who lack paid sick leave are more likely to be distressed, one concern is that long term exposure to increased stress can lead to a decline in mental health and physical health which may escalate this vulnerability. Since access to paid sick leave is less common among workers who are young, Hispanic, poorly educated, and earn lower incomes, paid sick leave can be thought of as a modifiable health disparity.
This research adds to a growing body of evidence supporting the value of paid sick leave in terms of individual health and public health. In addition to encouraging the voluntary adoption of paid sick leave among U.S. business owners, mandatory paid sick leave policies could also be considered.
It is important to be mindful of the overall costs associated mental health symptoms among U.S. workers. Given the tremendous cost of mental health conditions in the workplace, it is possible that policy alternatives such as paid sick leave may be cost saving when considering the productivity loss that may be associated with the increased psychological distress.
When paid sick leave is not an option, mental health professionals can utilize interventions such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help clients cope.
Citation
- Stoddard-Dare, P., DeRigne, L., Collins, C. C., Quinn, L. M., & Fuller, K. (2018). Paid sick leave and psychological distress: An analysis of U.S. workers. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 88(1), 1–9. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ort0000293
Note: This article is in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology & Management topic area. View more articles in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology & Management topic area.