Slopen Meredith
Columbia University, School of Social Work, United States.
Soc Sci Med. 2023 Apr;323:115839. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115839. Epub 2023 Mar 15.
The United States does not have a national program to provide job-protected paid leave to workers when they or a family member are ill or need to seek medical care. Many workers receive paid sick leave through their employers, but women, particularly parents, those without a college degree, and Latinas, are less likely than their counterparts to receive employer-provided paid sick leave (PSL). To address the shortfall in PSL coverage, several states and localities have passed laws mandating employers to provide PSL. I examine the impacts of three recent state-level paid sick leave policies on women's self-reported health using data from the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System. Using static and event-study difference-in-differences models, I find that PSL mandates decreased the proportion of women reporting fair or poor health by an average of 2.4 percentage points and reduced the number of days women reported their physical and mental health was not good by 0.68 days and 0.43 days in the past 30 days respectively. Effects were concentrated among parents, women without college degrees, and women of color. This study demonstrates that despite being a low-intensity policy, PSL improves women's health and well-being and that mandating workplace benefits may play a role in achieving health equity.
美国没有一项全国性计划，以便在工人本人或家庭成员生病或需要就医时为他们提供有工作保障的带薪休假。许多工人通过雇主获得带薪病假，但女性，尤其是有子女的父母、没有大学学历的人以及拉丁裔女性，比其他人群获得雇主提供的带薪病假（PSL）的可能性更小。为了弥补带薪病假覆盖范围的不足，一些州和地方通过了法律，强制雇主提供带薪病假。我利用行为风险因素监测系统的数据，研究了最近三项州级带薪病假政策对女性自我报告健康状况的影响。使用静态和事件研究的差分模型，我发现带薪病假规定使报告健康状况一般或较差的女性比例平均降低了2.4个百分点，并使女性报告在过去30天里身体和心理健康不佳的天数分别减少了0.68天和0.43天。影响集中在有子女的父母、没有大学学历的女性和有色人种女性中。这项研究表明，尽管带薪病假政策力度不大，但它改善了女性的健康和福祉，而且强制规定工作场所福利可能在实现健康公平方面发挥作用。
