Women and paid sick days: crucial for family well-being.(Report)

Balancing work with personal and family health-care concerns is a major stressor for many working women. Women continue to be overrepresented in part-time and low-wage positions, those least likely to offer employer benefits such as paid sick days. Nevertheless, working women remain our families' primary caregivers. For too many women, being sick or having an ill family member presents an untenable choice: stay at work when you shouldn't, or lose pay (and perhaps a job) by staying home.

More than 22 million working women lack basic sick days benefits

* More than 22 million working women (22,416,000) do not have paid sick days (Table 1). (1)

* 47 percent of women working in the private sector have no paid sick days. (2)

* In the industries that employ the most women--retail trade and accommodations/food service--55 percent and 78 percent of workers are without paid sick days, respectively (Table 2). In those two industries alone, almost 9 million women (8,780,000) lack paid sick days. (3)

* 27 percent of low-income women (with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level) put off getting health-care because they cannot take time off from work. 18 percent of women at all income levels face this situation. (4)

Women are still the primary family caregivers

* 80 percent of mothers assume primary responsibility in the family for selecting their children's doctor, taking children to doctor's appointments, and arranging for their children's follow-up care. (5) …