More Than 1 Million Minnesotans Lack Paid Sick Leave

Forty-one percent of Minnesota workers lack access to even a single day off to care for themselves, a sick child or loved one, according to a statewide analysis.

At the news conference announcing the campaign for paid sick time, Jessica Milli, Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, reviewed the results of a studyreleased last September.

Key findings of data broken down by occupation, gender, race/ethnicity, hours worked and earnings level include:

• Forty-one percent – over 1.1 million Minnesota workers – lack access to earned sick time benefits including a full 40% of private-sector workers (only 18% of public-sector workers lack access);

• Sixty percent of Latino workers in the state lack access to earned sick time benefits, significantly less likely than workers in any other racial/ethnic group, followed by 47% of African-American workers who lack access;

• Access to earned sick time varies substantially by occupation, with 71% of those in full-time positions having access while only 26% of those working part-time having access to earned sick time benefits;

• Service workers in particular are least likely to have access to earned sick time benefits, with only 35% having access. This includes food service and hospitality workers who work in close contact with the public;

• Eighty percent of full-time workers in the highest earnings brackets, making over $65,000 annually, have access while only 34% of full-time workers in the lowest earnings brackets, making $15,000 or less, have access to earned sick time benefits.

• The more populated Metro counties rank highest in the benefit at 59.2%. Counties with the lowest access rates, far below the state average, include St. Louis, Stearns, Itasca, Carlton, Cass and Aitkin.

The county-by-county access report, developed by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, details access rates for individuals 18 years and older, living in Minnesota regardless of their place of work. Data was culled from the 2010-2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the 2012 IPUMS American Community Survey (ACS).

> The article above was written by Larry Sillanpa, and is reprinted from Labor World newspaper.