Paid sick-days issue

I have paid sick days. I still end up going into work sick as while we have sick days, to have more than 3-4 incidences a year unless covered by FMLA is a big no no

What makes companies competitive? What makes one person want to work for one company and not the next? There are 4 different healthsystems, with at least 8 hospitals within a 45 minute commute. Why would someone choose one over the other?

The benefits that are offered. PHOs, insurance, tuition reimbursement,etc Then there are the personal reasons as well.

If you don't like the benefits offered by an employer then you don't work for them. If your employer changes the benefits then you have the choice to change employers or deal with it. That isn't just for healthcare, that's any job out there.

But what if all, or most employers decide not to give benefits? There is nothing guarantteed about having benefits other then a written contract.

The average person who is basically healthy will have 3 to 7 days/year when they are sick. Most of those are stress related not actual infectious related. If your work environment also adds to the sickness level with extra stress and exposure to infectious diseases then maybe you should either have a less stressful work environment with less tasks or be given a lot more sick days.

Ok, I vote for this

This initiative is off the ballot in Ohio. It has been deemed bad for a state that is losing business and jobs in this economy. Governor Strickland has decided to support a national sick day law.

This should be law in our nation- we need to start thinking differently about how we balance work and life in this country. We should look to equally productive European countries to bring dignity and respect back to the workforce.

I prefer to receive PTO which I can use for whatever purpose I might need...sick, personal day, vacation. I have worked two places that used this....one combined all paid time off, including holidays, and gave the employee a lump sum of PTO at the beginning of the fiscal year. The other place did PTO and paid holidays. The second place allocated so many PTO hours to accumulate per pay period. When I left both places I received payment for my unused PTO. Nice little sum in one case :-).

The reason I prefer PTO is that no employer I have ever encountered in 34+ years of working pays a departing employee for unused sick time. And it can be one heck of a battle to use sick time for other time off whenever one encounters a life crisis which is not covered by FMLA. So here is the good little employee who came to work even when sick who leaves the job after several years with weeks of paid time off that s/he never used and will not reap any benefit from receiving.

In any case paid time off, in whatever form, is a sadly neglected area for most Americans. We work more hours, with less benefits than many other industrialized nations. Somehow they manage to function without routinely working 50+ hours a week for a measely 1-2 weeks of vacation and perhaps 3-5 paid sick days a year and maybe no paid holidays. Makes a person go hmmm doesn't it?

It doesn't matter if one has paid sick days if using them gets one into trouble.

I realize that there are always exceptions, but in my experience, employers offer the most generous benefits they can afford. It is necessary to do so in order to be competitive.

If you desire paid sick time but work for an employer that does not currently fund it, I think you need to ask yourself what you are willing to give up in exchange for it. A cut in pay for hourly workers? A longer workweek for salaried employees? Fewer paid holidays or vacation days?

Employee benefits are expensive. Many employers simply can't afford to provide everything to everyone, and it isn't reasonable to expect someone else to pay.