Women and Paid Sick Days: Crucial for Family Well-Being

Balancing work with personal and family health-care concerns is a major stressor for many working women. Women continue to be overrepresented in part-time and low-wage positions, those least likely to offer employer benefits such as paid sick days. Nevertheless, working women remain our families’ primary caregivers. For too many women, being sick or having an ill family member presents an untenable choice: stay at work when you shouldn’t, or lose pay (and perhaps a job) by staying home.