Everyone gets sick. Doctor's appointments crop up. At some point or another, people need time to take care of themselves — or others — without having to sacrifice their paycheck.
A recently launched petition drive seeking to put the issue of requiring employers to offer paid sick leave before voters recognizes this reality, one that was especially at front of mind during the pandemic years.
The ballot initiative, backed by the Women's Fund of Omaha and a dozen other state and local organizations, would require all Nebraska employers to provide some amount of paid sick leave for employees, depending on the business' size. Those with fewer than 20 workers would have to set aside five days, while larger enterprises would be required to offer at least seven.
Similar efforts in the Nebraska Legislature to enshrine paid sick leave in state statute have consistently fallen short, underscoring the nuances of balancing the important interests of employers with the inescapable needs of workers who lack guaranteed sick leave, many of whom are already working low-wage jobs and come from disadvantaged communities.
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Jo Giles, executive director of the Women's Fund, estimates roughly 250,000 Nebraskans currently work in full-time jobs without guaranteed paid sick leave, in fields like food service, construction, education and transportation.
Obviously, more needs to be done.
And this petition drive, a noble effort that recognizes that a lack of paid sick leave disproportionately affects people of color and other minorities, continues an important conversation, one that employers should already be having among themselves without relying on a mandate from outside forces to implement.
For businesses already jockeying to hire and retain staff, paid sick leave is one way to entice workers in a volatile labor market still working to correct itself. But businesses already know this: Paid leave is often near or at the top of the list for what workers would like to see offered by their employers.
A February study from the American Journal of Industrial Medicine also showed that guaranteed sick leave was simply good for business in a vast number of ways, including improved employee morale, productivity and health and safety.
Instead of waiting for voters or lawmakers to act — and potentially hand down a requirement that might not necessarily work for every type of business across Nebraska — employers should take the cue from this petition drive that guaranteeing some form of paid sick leave is necessary to not only stay competitive but treat workers the way they deserve to be treated.
