Many lack sick leave as flu season looms

As I have said in many interviews and articles, the US is the only country that ties health insurance to employment.

Now we learn that half of employed people in this country have no sick leave as a benefit of employment.

Sounds to me as if we have been stuck at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution if we still maintain this kind of worker abuse for the benefit of profit and a select few.

Of course if you know me or read my articles you know I am in favor of economics as if people mattered.

This also means that the old ways of pyramidal hierarchy must undergo real change, become somewhat more horizontal, and inclusive.

Is it not the worker who makes the investor's dividend and the CEO mega slary with mega perks come on the back of workers?

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Nearly half of U.S. workers have no paid sick leave -- a problem that could worsen the spread of the fall flu season, officials said.

"A child can't stay home without a parent staying with them. So if the parent doesn't have paid sick time, the child mostly likely goes to school, and the parent goes to work," said Shula Warren, chief of staff for New York City council member Gale Brewer.

The second sweep this year of the H1N1 flu virus has re-ignited arguments about how much sick leave employers should offer and whether it should be mandated by law, CNNMoney.com reported Monday.

San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have laws requiring paid sick leave and 15 states are considering legislation for paid sick leave -- a benefit not available to an estimated 48-percent of the U.S. work force, the National Partnership for Women and Families said.

Many business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, oppose such legislation as harmful to small business, CNNMoney.com reported.